The BBC has a strange story on the fight to clean up the streets of Belfast:

Caroline Briggs from the council’s cleansing department said it was “a never-ending job”.

“We spend approximately £60,000 a year to remove chewing gum,” she said.

“However, we could spend 10 times that amount and still not really crack the problem.

Is chewing gum on sidewalks really that much of a problem? Another story discusses solutions at the front-end of the process.

New polymers being developed by Revolymer Ltd can be incorporated into chewing gum which may stop it cementing itself to the ground when dropped.

And here is a story on penalties that attempt to dissuade chewers from littering…

Chewers will be offered pouches to deposit their gum in pedestrian areas, while specially trained wardens in the trial areas will issue fines from £50 up to £75 for persistent offenders. […] Local authorities have said previously that it costs £150m a year to remove discarded chewing gum from the streets.

Special gum wardens? That seems strange to me. I can see wardens for real risks, but is chewing gum really the most pressing disaster facing urban areas?

What if the price of chewing gum included the costs of cleaning it up?