The eco guide to litter | Lucy Siegle

Discarded fast food wrappers make up much of our rubbish - but we're a long way off biodegradable packaging

The charity Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) is urging you to clean up for the Queen's 90th birthday (cleanforthequeen.co.uk). Cigarette butts are the most littered item on our streets, followed by fast-food and snack packaging, and plastic bags.

Litter is an ecological nightmare. Our rubbish fragments into bits of plastic that are washed into water courses, poisoning wildlife and choking the ecosystem. Every wrapper or container made from virgin materials that isn't recycled is a blow to the ambitions of a smarter, more circular economy. KBT's report How Clean is England? tells us that litter disproportionately affects low-income neighbourhoods, so it is a social justice issue, too.