Would a chewing gum ban clean up our streets?

From the chewing gum littering in my local streets – we need FAR MORE notices telling the public that they should take the gum home – in several languages – Just as we have MANY notices to dog owners about picking up poop – Both are equally against the law – but only one seems to be punishable. I have dogs – I pick up poop BECAUSE of the signs threatening £1000 fines – Not one sign about spitting – cigarettes – nose discharges – food wrappers – food – beds – chewing gum – paper – plastic bags – urination – vomit etc etc – all of which are disgusting but no notices except about dogs (the actual amount of poop littering the streets is minuscule (very very rare) in comparison to the rest.
When I was young I was taught to put chewing gum in the wrapper and take it home – To blow my nose in a handkerchief not on the floor – not to drop litter etc. Now apparently no one is taught such things – and – the councils do not act on this anti social behaviour

Gum defaces every pedestrian precinct in Europe. I would make every apprehended gum dropper clean up 10 sq. metres of pavement with their fingernails. The same goes for Graffiti. I drove from Leeds to Bulgaria and every publicly visible vertical surface en route was “adorned” with the output of spray cans. However, gum is longer lasting (we’re talking decades) and more difficult to remove.

I am presently in Singapore where there is a ban on chewing gum. There is not one mark on the pavements from discarded gum. The problem in UK is that people who spit gum out are couldn’t care less louts, and I am afraid to say that we have more than a fair share of them. Ban chewing gum. it is a small price to pay as it will dramatically clean up our streets, but we will still be left with the anti social mob who drop cigarette ends and all sorts of litter even when litter bins are at hand. The underclass will never care about the state of our streets.

Singapore is spotlessly clean of gum . They have a fine “fine” system that stops any littrring inclusive of gum

They ban them from the Metro too
….to prevent mindless morons from
holding up trains.

Within a few days of its opening any new or refurbished passageway in the London Underground is disfigured by the little spots of gum that have been compressed and blackened by a million shoes. I had never realised that gum chewing and irresponsible disposal were so prevalent. I have never actually seen anyone doing it but the sheer number of tell-tale blobs indicates an anti-social problem on an unmanageable scale. Enforcement would be virtually impossible so a ban is the only solution. Taxing gum would only lead to contraband and other criminal behaviour. I’m not sure there is any evidence that the chewing of gum is uniquely beneficial, whether for oral hygiene, for dental care, or for exercise of the mandible; perhaps though, if practised repetitively, it contributes to better mastication and thus is an aid to digestion.

Chewing gum is a really effective way to quit smoking.
I myself have quit smoking for over 5 years now, thanks to nicotene gum, and then switching to good old wrigley’s.

So many people use gum to help them quit smoking, and for that reason alone, I think that banning gum is a really bad idea.

Educating people to dispose of gum sensibly is the answer. What I do, is carry a pack of mini post-it notes around with me, I wrap the gum in those, and dispose of it when I next pass a suitable waste bin – simples.