Removing Chewing Gum - Australia Facing a Sticky Situation

(Melbourne April 2007)Have you ever put your foot in someone else’s dirty discarded chewy gum? Whether it be at the local shopping centre, school, university, cinema, entertainment venue, or on public transport most likely the answer is yes! This is because chewing gum litter is an ever increasing problem in Australia and it is set to get worse as chewing gum is the fastest growing segment of all confectionary sales.In 2005 the AC Nielson Top 100 Brand Report stated that Wrigley’s had gum sales of $75-$100 million in Australian retail alone and then in 2006 AZTEC data estimated the entire Australian gum market to be worth $180 million per annum. At $0.70 per pack with an average of seven pieces this could be calculated to approximately 1.8 billion pieces of gum sold every year and unfortunately there is always going to be those who litter. In fact it is estimated that 30 of people litter and according to Geoff Mabbet the CEO of Sustainability Victoria a staggering ‘40 of all ground litter is chewing gum’. Despite councils and venues spending millions of dollars every year ridding public places of gum current strategies are simply not effective. Traditionally high pressure water systems have been used to rid our walkways and floors of chewing gum but this has been an expensive process with limited success. While high pressure water may work outside on footpaths it is simply not designed for use inside or on carpets. To make matters worse this method not only uses dangerous chemicals and produces slippery pathways, it also wastes one of our most precious resources; water! Well that was the case until recently when TECNOVAP Australia introduced the new water saving Super Chewy Remover to their steam range. Murray McDonald, the Director of TECNOVAP Australia, says “the most effective method to treat gum is with steam as heat causes gum to disintegrate.” With the capability of removing up to 400 pieces of gum per hour through super heated dry steam and vacuum Murray believes “the TECNOVAP Super Chewy Remover is the perfect machine to combat the sticky crisis, especially as it works on hard surfaces and carpets.” Murray McDonald continues “It’s clean, fast and effective; simply find the chewy, activate the steam for 3 seconds and its gone…vacuumed away. Cleaning chewy couldn’t be easier!”In an ideal world there wouldn’t be any gum litter turning the streets into eyesores or ruining expensive internal flooring across the country. In reality though there is a problem and unfortunately it’s not going away, especially as gum takes around five years to biodegrade naturally. Also as it is highly unlikely that Australia will ever take the Singapore approach and ban chewing gum all together the best long term solution would be to educate the public on proper disposal. However in the meantime it’s good to see that there are companies like TECNOVAP providing potential answers to Australia’s sticky situation. ###

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