Mandatory printing of car registration numbers on all Drive Thru packaging.
The Parliament petitions site records 60,050 signatures for this petition, which closed on 30 September 2021. The Government responded on 22 April 2021.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Mandatory printing of car registration numbers on all Drive Thru packaging.
I would like to get all Drive Thru retailers to be required to print car registrations on all take away packaging. Hopefully, to cut down on the amount of litter that is blighting roadsides all over the country.
To help cut rubbish being dumped on the road sides, and make companies and customers accountable for their litter. This will not only be good for the environment, improve areas and peoples mental health. This will also save Local Authorities millions of tax payers money in clearing up the litter.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 22 April 2021. Its summary:
We do not think it would be cost-effective to require take-away food vendors to implement a vehicle registration number printing and tracing system for packaging.
The opening 350 words of the 431-word response:
Last year, Rebecca Pow MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defra, held a roundtable with large fast-food retailers to understand what action they are taking now to tackle the litter created by their products. It was encouraging to hear about the initiatives they are working on and, more importantly, that they are committed to delivering lasting change by working together to tackle what is an industry wide issue. The Minister was clear, however, that further action was needed.
We believe that businesses should try to reduce the amount of litter their products generate. The Litter Strategy sets out how we intend to work with the relevant industries to tackle certain types of problematic litter, including fast-food packaging.
We do not think it would be cost-effective to require take-away food vendors to implement a vehicle registration number printing and tracing system for packaging. This is due to the additional burden it would place on these businesses and those involved in enforcement. Data protection concerns have also been raised. However, we strongly support voluntary initiatives to reduce littering.
Under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, councils and others have powers to tackle persistent, unreasonable behaviour that is having a negative effect on a community’s quality of life. Councils, the police and designated social housing providers can issue Community Protection Orders and Public Space Protection Orders which can be used to require the owner of a premises, such as fast food outlets, to take certain actions to tackle litter created by their activities.
In some places, street litter control notices may already be in place to prevent litter. These notices can require the owner of a premises to take action to tackle litter, including taking remedial action up to 100 metres from the premises itself.
From April 2018, we have given district councils in England (outside London) new powers to hold the keeper of a vehicle responsible for littering offences committed from it. Councils can issue the keeper with a civil penalty of between £65 and £150 (default £100). A copy of the Regulations can be found online at:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/171/contents/made
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions.json?state=with_response&page=9UK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
5ee81238e36e8f70… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.