CAMPAIGNERS say much of the litter dropped alongside rural roads in the Cotswolds is from products by three multinational companies – McDonalds, Coca Cola and Red Bull.

Tim Barnes, of the litter campaign group Litterheroes, recently performed a study plotting every item of litter from the three brands on a 12-mile stretch of country lanes in the North Cotswolds.

He found 90 cans or bottles from Coca Cola (more than eight per mile), 54 Red Bull cans and 16 items of McDonalds litter.

Tim believes the three companies are the main culprits behind litter as they do not do enough to prevent littering as the anti-littering logos on the products are only a few millimetres across and cover a tiny fraction of the surface area.

"Our beautiful Cotswold lanes are fast becoming a Coca Cola landscape," he said. "These big brands sell huge volumes of product yet they make only token efforts to prevent littering of their product.

"Big brand litter is completely out of control on our country lanes."

The three companies told the Standard that they are concerned with littering of their products.

A spokesman for Red Bull said: "To hear that some communities are noticing more littering of our packaging is concerning.

"We encourage our consumers to Keep Britain Tidy through voluntary use of the 'Tidyman' logo and, where possible, as a brand we lead by example.

"As a business we operate a strict policy on recycling and at least 50 percemt of our can is made from recycled material."

Earlier this year Preston Parish Council met with representatives from Tesco and McDonalds to discuss the problem of litter being dropped in the village by motorists who have visited either of stores in nearby Cirencester.

But chairman Bill Mortimore does not think the companies are to blame.

"I think it is the customers being irresponsible. The people who do it just don’t care about littering."

Are the big brand companies responsible for the litter produced by their product or does the blame lie solely on the consumer? Post your comments below.