The issue with staining.
Highway staining negatively affects our streets, and is a real eyesore to an otherwise clean street. Dirty looking streets negatively affect how safe people feel in those streets. Oily stains are caused by seepage from poorly presented bags of rubbish placed on the pavement. Working together we can tackle the issue of stained streets.
How to stop it
By law businesses need to take all reasonable steps to prevent their rubbish from escaping in any shape or form which includes liquids seeping from rubbish bags (or bins). A business remains fully responsible for their rubbish until it’s in the back of the collection truck. This legal obligation is known as the Duty of Care. The exact obligations are set out in Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990
Awareness
We have launched a campaign to raise awareness among businesses to tackle the primary source of stained streets which is from liquids leaking out of rubbish bags onto the footway. We have joined a waste industry-led campaign aimed at delivering better Duty of Care for waste. We are targeting hot-spot streets to raise awareness and demonstrate to businesses their waste producing obligations. This is supported by a specialised “deep cleaning service” unit which cleans up stained areas as a one-off.
What you can do
Westminster will do all it can to ensure our residents, businesses, and visitors have the cleanest streets possible. You can help here by ensuring your place your rubbish bags out the right way. Please read here on how to do this. If the vicinity of your business regularly gets stained or looks grubby why not use our specialist deep cleaning service to clean it up.
For details of our Deep Cleaning Service, please see for yourself here.
