Every day, millions of Americans walk on sidewalks littered with little, round black spots, perhaps thinking these blobs are merely dirt or tar. But these dots are not tar, but instead discarded chewing gum, blackened by grime and flattened by the thousands of pedestrians who continually trample it.
The removal and cleaning of this concrete blight is a never-ending, and expensive, endeavor for cities and private business owners. Finding affordable and effective ways to clean gum from sidewalks is important for those already pinched by a tight budget.
Singapore has even banned gum due to litter. One famous company that specializes in the effective and environmentally-friendly removal of gum from sidewalks is Gumbusters, in New York City.
Little Black Dots on the Sidewalk
The millions of black blobs on nearly every sidewalk are actually old circles of dirty, squashed gum. This is at best an eyesore, and at worst the most vile and prodigious illustration of American laziness and littering since that car tossed a bag of cigarette butts and old hash brown wrappers at the feet of the " Crying Indian " in the famous PSA from the Seventies.
This issue has led to a conundrum on American sidewalks. Americans do not like to be told what to do, and, despite laws to the contrary, they won't throw their gum in a garbage can. But they do not want to pay for the gum cleanup, either. It's a lose/lose scenario.
Coast Guardsman Adrien O'Brien succinctly captured this Catch-22 in the August 2, 2008 edition of the Virginia-Pilot. When asked to comment about gum-cleaning services he said, "What a waste of taxpayer money. How are you going to police people from spitting it out again?"
Chewing Gum Ban in Singapore
Singapore has solved this dilemma by banning the importation of chewing gum. The 1992 ban seemed to work -- gum litter vanished from the streets, tables, walls, and elevators of Singapore. The ban was eased in 2004 to allow dentists and pharmacists to dispense gum with " proven health benefits " to the public.
Why the partial loosening of a ban that neutralized old gum woes? According to the June 4, 2004 edition of the Asian Wall Street Journal, the issue became part of the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. The Wm Wrigley, Jr. Company enlisted the help of top lobbyist Phil Crane to push for the right to import their "therapeutic" gum. It worked, as Wrigley started selling its product, Orbit, via dentists and pharmacists, in May of 2004.
The Penalty for Chewing Gum in Singapore
Wrigley's marketing coup was a victory for the oppressed gum-chewers of Singapore. When asked about the sudden need for gum sales in a country merely the size of Washington D.C., The Museum of Learning purports that Christopher Perille, Wrigley's senior director of corporate communications, said, "There's many examples in our history of things that may have not made short-term financial sense but was the right thing to do in a philosophical or long-term sense."
As it stands, prostitution in Singapore is less regulated than the chewing gum market. USA Today interviewed college student Fayen Wong in 2005, "It's ridiculous that it's easier for 16-year-olds to visit prostitutes than it is to get chewing gum here." In his comments, Wong did not offer any comparison between the ease and cost of cleaning the streets of prostitutes versus cleaning them of gum. (The illegal smuggling of gum into Singapore is punished by a year in prison plus a hefty fine.)
New York City Gum Problem
The likelihood of a chewing gum ban in the USA is only slightly less likely than a mass transformation of the public into litter-conscious citizens who dutifully throw used gum wads in the trash. This problem has been around since the triple advent of chewing gum, sidewalks, and metropolises. (Chewing gum was first patented in 1871; the other two were probably patented much earlier.)
Although this problem afflicts all towns, it is obviously more of an issue in America's biggest city, New York. An April 17, 1921 article in The New York Times now seems prescient:
"Chewing gum appears to have a very firmly established place with Americans, but now it has its objectionable features, just like all fads. Unless the vogue of gum-chewing passes or unless laws are passed and funds appropriated for a special sidewalk cleaning department, the City of New York may become totally enveloped in refuse chewing gum in the course of time."
Gumbusters Gum Removal
Luckily, there now is an affordable, and earth-friendly way to eradicate old gum from sidewalks. Gumbusters has a patented system that removes gum without chemicals, scraping, or power washing. Those old methods were time-consuming, expensive, and disruptive to pedestrians who were busy walking down sidewalks in search of new places to spit out their gum.
The Brooklyn-based Gumbusters' process was originally invented in Holland in 1998. Their "Gumcart" uses low water pressure, a mild detergent, and steam to safely remove old gum in only a few seconds. Their list of clientele includes McDonald's, the Long Island Rail Road, The Smithsonian Institution, and David Frankel Reality, Inc.
The problem of gum on the sidewalk is probably not going away, but at least there are some resources for cities and businesses to help to curb the problem. The mystery of "those little black dots on the sidewalk,' as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called them in a radio address in 2002, has been solved.
Sources
- University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, "Chewing Gum," (accessed December 1, 2010).
- Todd Crowell, "A billion jaws chewing," Asia Times Online," (accessed December 1, 2010).
- "Gum returns to Singapore after 12 years," USA Today, May 26, 2004.
- Gumbusters.com, (accessed December 1, 2010).
- "Bogged In Chewing Gum," The New York Times, April 17, 1921.
- Deborah Stead, "Out, Damned Spot," The New York Times, January 26, 2003.
- The Great Idea Finder, "Fascinating facts about the invention of Chewing Gum by Thomas Adams in 1870," (accessed December 1, 2010).
- Cris Prystay, "At long last, gum is legal in S'pore, but there are strings," Asian Wall Street Journal, June 4, 2004.
- Miral Fahmy, "Clean, green Singapore sticks to chewing gum ban," Reuters Life!, March 4, 2010.
- "Singapore's chewing gum ban comes unstuck," BBC News, November 20, 2002.
- Duane Cummins, "Gum Buster," The Washington Post, November 6, 2005.
Brian Downing - Graduated Summa Cum Laude from the College of Mount St Joseph with a Bachelor's Degree in Socio-Psychology. Subsequently co-authored an ...
