Litter levels in Essex have fallen by 41% after the launch of a county-wide campaign to tackle street waste.

The Cleaner Essex Group saw councils team up with more than 300 businesses to launch the Love Essex campaign in a bid to both reduce rubbish and pick up the litter dropped by people.

In Essex street cleaning alone costs taxpayers almost £17million a year.

The Love Essex campaign reminded people to bin their litter responsibly, or risk a fine for littering from £75. Campaign messages were displayed on posters, bus stops, buses, fast-food packaging and across social media.

Independent figures released by Keep Britain Tidy have revealed the campaign – which ran from August 24 until mid-October – has resulted in and two-fifths reduction in fast-food litter, and 41% fall in all litter.

Wendy Schmitt, Braintree district councillor for environment and place, said: “Binning your litter is an easy thing to do and makes our county a nicer place to live.

“I’m glad we’ve been able to pool resources and work together with so many others to reduce litter. Essex is a beautiful part of the country so it is very frustrating when people drop litter.”

Among the businesses involved were Dominos, KFC and McDonalds.

Alex Cook, store manager at Braintree Tesco, said: “Tesco has a big social responsibility to help keep our county litter free and we have loved doing our bit for the campaign alongside the council.

“Our teams participated in community litter picks and this is an important step to clean up our towns and raise awareness.”