Who is part of the litter journey?
Business sectors are critical to decisions to design, make, market, distribute and sell products.
Consumers are critical in the product choices they make and the habits and expectations they have about the disposal of rubbish.
Place managers of litter hotspots can present those locations in a way that minimises litter and gives clear information on responsible rubbish disposal.
When litter escapes into the wider environment, community partners including volunteers who clean up riverbanks, beaches and other favourite places will bag up the rubbish and ask, 'How can we make this stop?'
How the prevention strategy works along the litter journey
The NSW Litter Prevention Strategy addresses the litter journey through 5 key strategies.
Item is made and supplied for sale.
Item is used and the packet is all that's left.
Litter Strategy 1: Reward responsible behaviour
Will it be thrown in a bin? Or will it be dropped on the ground?
Litter Strategy 2: Education and awareness around disposal
Litter Strategy 3: Regulation and enforcement around littering
The packet is dropped on the ground, adding to a litter hotspot.
Litter Strategy 4: Infrastructure and cleaning at litter hotspots
The litter begins to break up and is carried into drains, waterways, estuaries or the ocean.
Litter Strategy 5: Evaluation and monitoring of recycling, behaviour, hotspots, land use, estuaries and microplastics
Case study
A packet of chips gets distributed through supply chains to points of sale.
A customer buys the chips and eats them, and the plastic packet is all that’s left. Will it be thrown in a bin? Or will it be dropped on the ground to add to a litter hotspot? Now it is part of the environment.
Over time, rain, wind, gravity or mechanical processes, such as a lawnmower or truck tyres, may help to break the litter up and carry it into the wider environment – drains, waterways, estuaries or the ocean.
From manufacture to consumer to the environment it’s a story of increasing break-up and dispersal. When a piece of litter enters the wider environment the chance to control what happens rapidly diminishes to zero.
Actions to reduce litter
Source control is delivered primarily via the Plastics Action Plan single use item phases outs; and working with local and regional stakeholders to identify problematic items in their local jurisdictions and working with local businesses and consumers to phase them out.
Diversion to a circular economy is delivered in large part via Return and Earn (Container Deposit Scheme Branch) and product stewardship and Extended User Responsibility (EPR) schemes namely the proposed cigarette butt EPR outlined in the Plastic Action Plan.
Education, awareness and engagement is delivered through the Tosser! campaign. Education is a crucial part of behaviour change – it builds awareness of litter, helps the community understand the impacts of litter, and establishes a social norm to not litter . By working with partners through local councils, communities and industries we can extend and amplify the campaign message.
Better infrastructure and clean up is primarily delivered through grants. Funding and support will be provided across three key streams for councils, regional waste groups, established community and catchment groups, government agencies and key stakeholders to deliver targeted litter prevention initiatives.
Effective regulation and enforcement of litter laws through council support and training, coordination of campaigns and the Report to EPA littering from vehicle system.
Targeted programs to stop litter dispersal is delivered through several targeted programs to deal with specific items, practices and pathways that lead to the dispersal of litter into the wider environment.
Monitoring and evaluation of action and research through regular litter counts, and evaluation of programs, driving the evidence-base for programs, as outlined in the NSW EPA litter data Framework.
Litter prevention pages
- Nature Hates a Tosser
- About the Nature Hates a Tosser campaign
- Where rubbish goes
- How long rubbish stays in the environment
- Impacts of rubbish
- What you can do to prevent litter
- Report littering from vehicles
- EPA: 2024-25 litter data for NSW
- Funding for community and council litter prevention projects
- The NSW effort to reduce litter