Give your old chewing gum a second life

We’ve teamed up with revolutionary recyclers Gumdrop to help make our environment better at Canada Water.

Did you know that (used!) chewing gum can be recycled into new plastic and rubber products? That’s right – the 250,000 splodges of old gum on Oxford Street alone could have become anything from wellington boots to mobile phone covers, stationery, packaging and much more. And as well as being used instead of brand new plastic, recycling old chewing gum could help save some of the £60 million that councils across the UK spend every year on cleaning it off pavements.

Gumdrop Ltd is the first company in the world to recycle and process chewing gum into a range of new compounds that can be used in the rubber and plastics industry, and we’ve just installed one of their gum recycling bins at Canada Water. You can’t miss it – it’s a round pink bin near the Library entrance to Canada Water Station – and we’re hoping passers by will take advantage of the opportunity to do a little good with their old gum. And the cherry on top? That pink bin itself is made from old gum, and a full bin of gum can be turned into three more bins.

Happy chewing, and happy recycling!