Five weird and wacky ways councils are cracking down on litter

From animated games to publicly identifying offenders, local authorities are getting creative in the fight to get rid of rubbish

Keeping streets clean matters. According to the Local Government Association, councils spend almost 1 bn a year on tackling litter and fly-tipping, at a time when they face difficult choices due to budget cuts. Incidents of fly-tipping have increased by 20% in 2014 - last year there were 852,000 cases - while funding for street cleaning has fallen for the past four years. According to Clean Up Britain, 48% of people still admit to dropping rubbish on the streets (pdf), with chewing gum and cigarette stubs the main offenders.

But councils are fighting back. From whodunnit campaigns, and CCTV monitoring, to litter raffles and animated games, councils across the UK are using unorthodox methods to make people think differently about the state of our streets and what can be done to keep them clean.