IT'S the latest British invention, and it should solve once and for all a problem that has blighted people the world over - revolting sticky globs of used chewing gum.
Scientists have developed the first non-stick, biodegradable gum. In most situations, it doesn't stick to pavements, clothes, shoes or hair - and tests by gum aficionados have confirmed it has the same texture, taste and chewiness as conventional che
wing gum.
A Bristol University spin-out company called Revolymer is in talks with major chewing-gum manufacturers and hopes to be able to launch the new product early next year.
Professor Terence Cosgrove, the firm's chief scientific officer, said: "We've all had the unpleasant experience of finding someone else's gum stuck under a table or chair or getting stuck on your shoes. It can get on your clothes, it gets stuck to pavements, it's unsightly and it costs huge amounts of money to remove.
"We've been making new materials which we've added to a modified chewing-gum formulation which makes it much easier to remove - and in some cases it doesn't stick at all."
The non-stick properties of the product, provisionally named Clean Gum, were demonstrated by Prof Cosgrove yesterday at the British Association for the Advancement of Science conference in York.
He said the new gum "tastes great", and this has been confirmed by trials involving a panel of 20 leading chewing gum experts - who couldn't detect any difference in taste retention, texture or chewing ability.
Prof Cosgrove said: "We've also tested out whether it sticks to hair, with the daughter of our chief executive, Roger Pettman, who volunteered to let us put Clean Gum on one side of her hair and ordinary gum on the other.
"With the sticky gum, we tried using shampoo and a scrubbing brush but we eventually had to cut the hair off, but with the Clean Gum, we were able to wash it out with shampoo."
Clean Gum is formulated using a harmless polymer compound called polyethylene oxide, which is added to synthetic rubber, sugar and other materials used in standard gum.
Tests carried out this summer on pavements in Bristol and various towns in Wales have confirmed that the new gum dissolves naturally in water and is easily washed away by rain.
The firm is now gearing up to produce Clean Gum commercially and plans to have it in shops next year.
Removing gum from the streets - using spray jets, chemicals or even laser equipment - is estimated to cost local authorities more than £150 million a year.
A group of 20 councils last year called for a 1p tax on every pack sold to help cover the huge costs of cleaning gum off the streets.
In Singapore, chewing gum was banned in 1992, although the rules were relaxed in 2004 to allow the consumption of gum with "therapeutic value".
Companies have been racing to develop a non-stick chewing gum but have struggled to find a formula that will be effective on a range of different surfaces.
Revolymer is confident it has cracked the problem and the company is preparing to manufacture the new gum.
"We've got just a handful of employees, but we can make the polymer in fairly large quantities in combination with other companies," Prof Cosgrove said.
A spokeswoman for Wrigley said it was researching a non-stick gum, but that the real challenge for new products lay in satisfying customer tastes and complying with food regulations.
STUCK WITH THE COSTS
ABOUT £300 of taxpayers' money is spent every minute in the UK trying to clean waste chewing gum from streets.
Around 935 million packs of gum are chewed by 28 million people in the UK every year, and it is estimated that 80-90 per cent of it is not placed in bins.
Edinburgh spends about £500 a day removing gum from its streets.
And Glasgow City Council spent £400,000 last year.
Edinburgh recently spent £20,000 buying a Whale T3 pressure washer chewing gum removal machine. Many councils are now using impounded drug-dealing money to buy similar machines.
