British drivers should show a greater level of responsibility towards the general roadside cleanliness of the country’s routes.

The Highways Agency, which manages the main motorway network across England, has announced that some 700,000 sacks full of litter are removed from the roadside every year by authorities and suggested that drivers should show greater respect for the road and the environment.

The Agency says its Road User Satisfaction Surveys indicate that drivers place the cleanliness of major roads as highly important, but despite the sentiment around three-quarters felt that it was not their responsibility to manage the problem. The Agency has once again turned to its well-known ‘Bag It! Bin It!’ campaign, where drivers are urged to place all of their rubbish in a bag for their trip and deposit it in an appropriate receptacle on reaching their destination.

As well as being an eyesore, litter can lead to problems for local wildlife and fauna, while blocked drains lead to greater maintenance and repair costs which the public ends up paying for. Highways Agency network director Derek Turner stated that the group will continue to work with local authorities to keep the roadways clean, but that resources could be used better if drivers took greater responsibility in the first instance. In a survey conducted by the charity Keep Britain Tidy last year, around one-quarter of all motorists admitted that they threw rubbish from their cars while driving.