Road chiefs hope the move will free up more time for highways teams to focus on maintenance work.

The window-height bins are being installed at around a dozen service areas in the North West over the next few months.

The bins allow both car and lorry drivers to reach the half-a-metre-wide funnels from their vehicles’ windows.

Paul Elliott, Service Delivery Team Leader at Highways England, said: “Our teams of workers do a fantastic job removing litter from motorways every year but we’d much rather they were able to spend more of their time carrying out maintenance work.”

It costs taxpayers an estimated £40 for each sack of litter collected from motorways – roughly the same cost as fixing a pothole.

Rubbish has to be collected close to fast-moving traffic – putting workers at risk – and lane closures are often needed, causing needless disruption to drivers.

Paul Cooper, 46 from Bolton, has been collecting litter from motorways in the North West for 19 years as part of his job as a maintenance worker for Balfour Beatty Mott MacDonald.

Cooper said: “I think most drivers who sling litter out their windows don’t really think about what they’re doing, and that someone like me has to come along and clear up after them.

“It tends to be worst on slip roads or where there’s standing traffic, as that’s when drivers seem to decide to have a clear out of their cars.

“There’s always an element of risk when you’re working on the network as you’re near traffic so my message to drivers is please stop dropping litter and use the bins or take it home with you instead.”