Gum, Be Gone!
Translation: Julie Summers and Hólmfríður María Bjarnardóttir
This summer, many people were probably surprised by the sight of a seventy-something man cruising around town on an electric scooter, wearing a yellow vest and carrying some sort of strange vacuum cleaner on his back. The Gum Slayer, as some people call him, recently spoke with the Student Paper. We couldn’t wait to meet this interesting man, who set out to clean as many wads of gum as possible off the streets and sidewalks of downtown Reykjavík over the course of 10 weeks.
Guðjón Óskarsson / Photo from his Facebook site: Tyggjóið burt"!
Can you briefly tell us a little about yourself? (Name, age, education/career, hobbies)
My name is Guðjón Óskarsson and I’m 70 years old. I attended the University of Life. I started working at a young age and have been my own master my entire life, my own company. I’ve held various jobs, including in Spain, and it was there that I first tried cleaning gum. But it didn’t work out then; it was a crazy year. I was there in the fall of 2008 and it just didn’t work out.
What made you decide to clean as many wads of gum as possible off the streets of Reykjavík over the course of 10 weeks?
We went back and forth about it, me and my brother, who I live with. We spent a lot of time thinking about what I would do when I lost my job, which involved marketing in the hotel industry. I wanted to do something, but it needed to be rewarding for me personally, and it had to be something positive. So we had the idea of reviving the gum cleaning business. Everyone would be happy about that, especially if I did it of my own accord. I gave myself the goal of removing as many wads of gum as I could in 10 weeks. My son Brynjólfur was in charge of social media and did a great job with it. He kept the project alive and shared pictures and such every day.
Why gum?
Well, I’ve always thought it’s so ugly and I hate seeing it. When I lived in Spain and first had the idea, it was everywhere, and because it rains so little there, exhaust from the cars sticks to the wads of gum and turns them black. On the other hand, they’re also really visible here in Iceland because it rains so much that they stay white and are easy to see against the black pavement.
How does one clean gum off the street?
I have a battery-powered device filled with a fluid that the device heats up to 100 degrees. The heat and the fluid, which is environmentally friendly, dissolve the chewing gum, and it goes into the brush. If it's nicotine gum, I have to dispose of it in a drain or trash can. Nicotine gum is different than other gum in a way I can’t fully explain, but it doesn’t dissolve as easily and instead turns into a sort of mushy porridge that I can stir. The composition is somewhat different; it’s not as rubbery. I cleaned Skólavörðustígur for the second time the other day and it was mostly nicotine gum.
How would you describe the working day of a chewing gum cleaner?
I work from 11 to around 4 or 5, four to five hours; the battery lasts for about four and a half. I have a contract with the city to work four hours a day, but sometimes I like to work longer hours so I’ll have extra time to make up for those days in October and November when I don’t expect to be able to make it outside.
How did it go with securing funding, and what does the contract you mentioned entail?
The grants I got were only for the ten weeks the project was ongoing. I only approached companies for funding because the cleaning fluid and brushes are quite expensive; I go through two to three brushes and around six liters of fluid a day. So the cost is quite high, not to mention the million the device itself cost. Securing funding went well, and I now have a contract with the city, so everything is working out. I’m contracted for two months of employment, four hours a day in October and November.
What was the public’s reaction like?
It was incredible. It’s extremely rewarding and there’s so much positivity. Strangers strike up conversations with me to tell how happy they are about what I’m doing, so that’s really fun.
Are you planning to repeat the project next year, or do you think it will grow in size?
Well, now I have new goals. I hope I will get another contract with the city to maintain the streets I’ve been cleaning and add some more. Still, the city probably won’t want me to clean streets like Baldurgata, Öldugata, or Ránargata, that haven’t been cleaned in decades. But I want to go further and try to make 101 Reykjavík gum-free by July 1, 2021. That’s the goal. Of course, it will never be completely gum-free, but if I would spend the last week going over all the streets in 101, there definitely wouldn’t be much gum left, so I could get it really close to gum-free. I hope the project will raise awareness and get people talking, so if the city doesn’t want to clean those streets I mentioned, I could take bids for cleaning certain stretches. People could, for instance, buy ten meters of gum-free Bárugata for 1000 ISK, or something like that.
Where did you find the most wads of gum?
The streets around Laugavegur have been really bad. Ingólfstræti leading down to Hverfisgata is a busy route for partiers, Þingholtsstræti and those sidestreets. Bergstaðastræti from Laugavegur to Skólavörðustígur was really bad. I had a contest on my Facebook page to see who could guess how many wads of gum I would clean on Ingólfsstræti to the right of Bankastræti and all the way down to Spítalastígur. I started at ten o’clock and finished around seven, and I believe there were around 700 wads. Smiðjustígur, which is not a long street, had around 600. It was incredible.
Do you listen to something while you work?
Yes, I’ve been listening to podcasts. Lately, I’ve been listening to Sölvi Tryggva and Í ljósi with Vera Illugadóttir. I find all of this on Spotify. I prefer the spoken word to music.
Did anything about the process surprise you?
No, I had already imagined the worst. I even had a defense speech planned in case I needed to start an argument with the City of Reykjavík about whether I could clean their streets and sidewalks. Even planned to refer to the garbage pluckers and everything. But it was a piece of cake. I got a phone call from the head of these affairs with the city where he thanked me for what I was doing and asked if he could help me in any way. I told him I would appreciate an exemption from the parking fee, because at that point I had already paid around 1800 ISK for two days of parking. So everything I thought would go badly turned out great. But I guess what surprised me was how incredibly well I was received. For example, I was sponsored by Hopp, an electric scooter rental company, so I was able to park far away and could scoot around town, which saved me some steps while cleaning. It also surprised me how much chewing gum there was, even though I had scoped things out before starting the project.