Impacts of rubbish

The facts show that rubbish has an impact on animals, the environment and the health of people.

Impact on animals

Often animals mistake rubbish for food and this has a huge impact on their survival.

Land animals

1 in 41 casualty crashes on country roads involves a vehicle hitting an animal¹.

Throwing food from your car could be the reason an animal is drawn to the road.

Ocean animals

Only one in 1,000 sea turtles will reach adulthood². If a turtle eats just one piece of plastic, it has a 1 in 5 chance of dying³.

100% of sea turtles examined in a 2018 study³ had plastic in their guts.

2050

it's projected that the weight of plastic in the ocean will outweigh fish by 2050 ⁴

100,000

marine mammals die every year as a result of plastic pollution ⁵

Impact on the environment

Whether it’s your local park or your favourite beach, chances are some of your most loved spots are impacted by littering.

Cigarettes can start fires

Lit cigarettes can start grass fires on the side of the road. Grass fires can progress quickly and pose a danger to property⁶.

Litter on beaches

95^%

of litter on beaches comes from suburban streets ⁷

It travels down the street drains, through the stormwater systems.

Litter and impact on coral

50^%

of coral in the Great Barrier Reef was lost between 1995 and 2017 ⁸

If plastic debris blocks sunlight, it could lead to low-oxygen conditions that promote the growth of disease-causing bacteria. When coral is damaged, that might invite diseases into the coral.

80^%

of marine debris found in the Great Barrier Reef is plastic ⁹

This can smother coral, entangle wildlife or be eaten by animals.

The likelihood of disease increases from 4% to 89% when corals are in contact with plastic.

Impact on health

Microplastics

Microplastics are found in our food, drinking water and even the air we breathe. You could be consuming the equivalent of a credit card's worth of plastic each week¹⁰.

4,000

microplastic particles consumed a year if you drink tap water

90,000

microplastic particles consumed a year if you drink bottled water ¹¹

Injuries

Injuries from beach litter can lead to serious injuries and long-term hepatitis or tetanus.

more than 20^%

of Australian beach goers surveyed had injuries caused by marine debris ¹²

Show Key references

Transport for NSW (2021), Animals on country roads
Frazer N. (1986), Survival from Egg to Adulthood in a Declining Population of Loggerhead Turtles, Caretta caretta. Herpetologica 42(1), pp. 47-55.
Wilcox C., Puckridge M., Schuyler Q.A. et al (2018), A quantitative analysis linking sea turtle mortality and plastic debris ingestion, Scientific Reports, 12536.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2016), The new plastics economy: Rethinking the future of plastics
UNESCO (2020), The ocean we need for the future we want
Fire and rescue NSW (2021), Can cigarette butts start bushfires?
RMIT University (2021), The litter trackers: Reducing littering by education
Falconer R. (2020), Australia's Great Barrier Reef has lost half its corals in 25 years (since 1995), AXIOS.
Kroon F, Berry K, Brinkman D, et al (2015), Identification, Impacts, and Prioritisation of Emerging Contaminants Present in the GBR and Torres Strait Marine Environments, Report to the National Environmental Science Programme, Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Limited, Cairns.
Dalberg Advisors - Wijnand de Wit and Nathan Bigaud (2019), No Plastic in Nature: Assessing Plastic Ingestion from Nature to People. Prepared by Dalberg, based on a study commissioned by WWF and carried out by The University of Newcastle, Australia
Cox D.C., Covernton G.A., Davies H.L., Dower J.F., Juanes F., Dudas S.E. (2019), Human consumption of microplastics, Environmental Science & Technology 53 (12), 7068-7074.
Campbell M.L., Slavin C., Grage A., Kinslow A. (2016), Human health impacts from litter on beaches and associated perceptions: A case study of ‘clean’ Tasmanian beaches, Ocean & Coastal Management, Volume 126, pp.22-30.