JOYS GREEN, England, March 19 (UPI) -- A British store owner said litter in her village is down by 40 percent since she started marking candy wrappers with the names of the children who bought them.

Yvonne Froud, 52, said she uses a black permanent marker to write the names of buyers on candy wrappers, bags of chips and beverage containers to identify the litterbugs of Joys Green, England, The Daily Mirror reported Thursday.


Froud said children whose names are found on wrappers left on the street face penalties including temporary bans from her shop and periods of litter-picking duty.

"I was so disgusted by the litter I had to do something about it," the shopkeeper told The Daily Mail. "Now if we find packets around the village we know who they belong to. I will do it with adults if they start littering, too."