Littering drivers no more: UK's trashcam catches every waste thrown out of cars

Motorists in the UK who litter around while driving will soon come under surveillance of a new camera technology 'trashcam' that catches them in the act. The Maidstone Borough Council in Kent will employ the LitterCam from April in a pilot scheme in the country to catch drivers who throw trash out of their windows.

The litterbugs will be charged a fine of £90 which could rise to £120 if unpaid after 15 days. The maximum on-the-spot fine in England is £150. The LitterCam works by recording a footage of the cars that are caught discarding rubbish such as coffee cups, fast food, nappies, cigarette ends and apple cores. The footage and the photographic evidence of the number-plate of the car is then verified by control room.

Once the vehicle is identified and verified, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency of the UK then provides the address of the registered keeper of the vehicle and a fine is sent to the offender. The trashcam is mainly useful as it helps create evidence of the offence which can be viewed in the LitterCam portal.

As per Highways England and reported by The Daily Mail, around 200,000 sacks of trash are removed from England's roads every year. These include things like coffee cups, fast food leftovers, nappies, cigarette butts, among others. Litter was mostly found on high streets, minor roads as well as motorways. Slip roads are usually filled with larger discarded waste items such as building materials that might have fallen down from poorly-secured cargo on lorries.

Last year, the UK issued around 200 fines for littering on roads but the authorities hope that the trashcam will help in get hold of more such litterbugs. These LitterCams are expected to be more useful on motorways where offenders are rarely caught in the act.