More than 13,000 red rubber bands are to be sent back to Royal Mail by the Keep Britain Tidy campaign in protest at postmen littering people's front gardens.

Streets have been increasingly cluttered with the rubber bands used to hold mail together.

Keep Britain Tidy said it was creating an eyesore, and also endangering animals which could choke on the rubber.

In an effort to stop the problem, the environmental charity asked households to send in bands found on driveways or front gardens to send back to the Royal Mail.

In just a couple of months more than 13,000 rubber bands were sent in by the public and will now be delivered in a giant see-through envelope to be reused.

Royal Mail currently spends £1million a year replacing rubber bands.

Dickie Felton, from Keep Britain Tidy, said people were increasingly fed up of finding litter on the doorstep.

"We were amazed that our campaign caused such a commotion. We received hundreds of letters stuffed with red rubber bands from across the country.

"Clearly people are fed-up with posties carelessly throwing these bands on the floor. We accept that dropping an elastic band is hardly the worst littering offence in the world, but none-the-less it is litter.

"The bands look terrible strewn on the floor and pose a chocking danger to pets and wildlife."

Postmen couyld face an on-the-spot fine of £80 for dropping litter, with the penalty rising to a maximum of £2,500 if the case goes to court.

The charity now hopes to meet Royal Mail's chief executive to discuss the problem and ways to tackle it.

Royal Mail currently spends £1million a year replacing rubber bands.


Shurely shome mishtake...the 'official' line from Royal Mail about a month or so ago, was that they 'recycle the bands continuously'...

Probably explains why there's about a dozen cartons full of 'em laying around our office... ::)

A wonderful incentive.  Every little bit helps  :)

Man, if I caught our postal carrier doing that, I'd shoot them at her legs.  Fortunately for us all, she takes the rubber bands off the mail and puts them around the handle of her little mail cart.

That Keep Britain Tidy group should make a giant rubber band ball and roll it to the head of the Royal Mail.

That Keep Britain Tidy group should make a giant rubber band ball and roll it to the head of the Royal Mail.


I read of someone years ago who made a huge rubber band ball purely from the bands he found lying around the streets in his town.

I read of someone years ago who made a huge rubber band ball purely from the bands he found lying around the streets in his town.
This one?

The long reigning "World's Largest Rubber Band Ball" began as an artistic exploration by a bored guy toiling in a law firm's mailroom in Wilmington, Delaware. John Bain worked on his rubber band ball for over five years. As it grew larger, he secured donations of large industrial rubber bands from a company in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He received his first Guinness World Record certificate in 1998, and managed to hold onto the record until 2006. His rubber band ball weighs over 3,120 lbs. and is 15.1 ft in circumference.

John provides helpful advice on recordball.com to aspiring challengers: "Putting something in the middle is cheating! Take one thick rubber band and tie it in a knot. Begin wrapping other bands around it. The ball will look retarded until it reaches the size of a golf ball."

The ball can be viewed in the front window of an auction house in Chevy Chase that purchased the ball for promotional purposes. Bain wrote that "they plan to auction off the ball in the future and give me the profits from the sale."

In November 2006, John's title was lost to a 19-ft circumference Rubber Band Ball created in one intense year of effort by 26-year old Steve Milton in Oregon (the ball had Office Max as its corporate sponsor). And there is still a rival rubber band ball in San Francisco secretly plotting to grab the World's Largest claim.

No, it was years ago (like sometime in the 80s) and it was a Brit

No, it was years ago (like sometime in the 80s) and it was a Brit
Could it had been in the Guinness Book of Records and on Record Breakers with Roy Castle?

Could it had been in the Guinness Book of Records and on Record Breakers with Roy Castle?


Maybe, or I had a book called something Little Red Record Book, it could've been in that.

I was just talking to someone today about Record Breakers

Maybe, or I had a book called something Little Red Record Book, it could've been in that.

I was just talking to someone today about Record Breakers
That was just a hunch, for it would the kind of thing that would have been on that program.