What is Litter?

Litter is any material that has been left where it is not meant to be.

Frequently littered items include:

cigarette ends
bus tickets
drink containers
apple cores
take-away food packaging
material falling from an unsecured load
crisp packets

Litter is usually thought of as small items, but it also includes abandoned vehicles, household rubbish dumped on the roadside or in bushes, and furniture such as mattresses left on the street by people moving house.

Litter Matters - But Why?

Litter is the most visible sign of pollution. It is unsightly and can cause harm to people, wildlife and our waterways.
It encourages pest animals as well as the spread of germs and disease.
Litter is wasteful and costly to clean up.
Litter also affects the way tourists view our town.

Dangerous Litter

Some litter can be dangerous. Broken glass, fishhooks and bits of metal can cause serious injuries to people. Discarded lit cigarettes can cause fires.

Litter Costs

Litter prevention, education, collection and enforcement costs the community every year.

Litter has many other costs that are significant but hard to quantify in monetary terms.

Examples include the social and environmental costs of degraded environments, injured wildlife, and impacts on livability such as reduced amenity of public space, and community safety.

Who Litters and How?

Littering research shows that that there are no significant gender, age or class distinctions in people's littering behaviour. Littering behaviours are influenced by a number of factors - the type of item being disposed of, whether people regard the item as litter, whether bins are available to dispose of the litter and whether we are alone or in a group or in a private or public place.

The bottom line is that people from all walks of life litter. Preventing and reducing litter is everyone's responsibility. As individuals we can choose to 'do the right thing' and dispose of our waste appropriately.

Changing Littering Behaviours

The complexity of littering behaviours requires that at the community level we need to work together to develop litter strategies that address a range of factors and in an integrated way.

The essential elements are education & enforcement.

An education program alone or the issuing of fines by itself will not lead to sustainable long term changes.

Likewise, the provision of more bins alone does not prevent litter - about 50% of littering occurs within 8 metres of a bin. When people are educated about the dangers of littering, attitude and behaviour change are more likely to occur.