Badge Money Blog  Chewing gum tax targets miscreant masticators
Poll: Should chewing gum attract a clean-up tax? Gum shoe: Do
you support a tax on chewing gum to pay for clean-up costs?
Photograph: Joseph Devenney/Getty Images  The over-50s are
calling for a tax on chewing and bubble gum to help fund a
clean-up campaign and encourage the use of degradable natural
gum, according to research by Saga.  Of the 14,000 people that
responded to the Saga Populus Panel, 82% supported the idea of a
levy on synthetic gum: 21% thought a 1p tax per piece of gum was
appropriate, while 20% thought 10p per piece was reasonable.
Britons are estimated to chew about 1bn pieces of gum a year, so
a 10p levy would raise £100m towards the £150m clean-up costs
paid by local councils. More importantly, Saga says, a tax that
pushes up the cost of a pack of Wrigleys Extra gum (10 pieces)
from its rrp of 35p to £1.35 could persuade consumers to switch
to biodegradable gum – the only kind available until the 1950s.
Wrigley claims tha