clean up australia day rubbish report 2008

Clean Up Australia © 2008

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R U B B I S H R E P O R T 2 0 0 8


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W i t h t h a n k s t o o u r S p o n s o r s a n d

S u p p o r t e r s :

MAJOR SPONSORS SPONSORS

SUPPLIERS

CONTENTS

Page Number

I n t r o d u c t i o n 3

O v e r a l l T r e n d s 4

E x e c u t i v e S umm a r y 5

K e y F i n d i n g s 7

K e y S u r v e y R e s u l t s 7

M e t h o d o l o g y 8

S u r v e y e d S i t e s 9

R e t u r n e d S u r v e y s b y S t a t e 9

R e t u r n e d S u r v e y s b y S i t e T y p e 10

M a j o r S o u r c e s o f R u b b i s h 11

H i s t o r i c a l C om p a r i s o n 12

M a j o r S o u r c e s o f r u b b i s h –

A n a l y s i s o f E a c h C a t e g o r y 14

� P l a s t i c 14

� P o l y s t y r e n e 15

� G l a s s 16

� R u b b e r 17

� P a p e r a n d C a r d b o a r d 18

� M e t a l / A l u m i n i u m 19

� Wo o d 20

� M i s c e l l a n e o u s 21

T h e T o p T e n R u b b i s h I t e m s 22

M o s t ‘ P o l l u t e d ’ S i t e s 23

S i t e R u b b i s h C om p o s i t i o n 25

C a s e S t u d y – T h e B a r w o n R i v e r 26


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I N T RODUC T I O N

The nation’s largest community-based

environmental event, Clean Up Australia

Day, celebrated its eighteenth year in

2008.

The campaign continues to go from

strength to strength, highlighting the

nation’s most urgent environmental and

waste issues. The link between waste and

greenhouse gases was given the spotlight

in 2008, to urge all Australians to consider

their daily actions and the impact they

have on climate change.

Recycling is a major solution to many

waste problems, and has benefits to the

environment as well as the community.

This was a major focus of the 2008

campaign, which trialled a formal recycling

program across several councils. The aim

of this trial was to gauge community

uptake, council capabilities and gather

overall statistics on how successful

recycling at Clean Up sites can be.

This linked into the launch of the Clean Up

Our Climate campaign, which aims to raise

awareness and educate the community

about Climate Change. Clean Up our

Climate provides practical solutions;

empowering individuals, schools and

businesses to reduce their carbon

emissions. Recycling is a positive action

which can significantly reduce carbon

emissions and this is one of the key

messages of the campaign.

On Clean Up Australia Day 2008 (March

2nd), Ian Kiernan AO, Chairman and

Founder of Clean Up Australia (CUA),

highlighted the vital need for governments

to look at real solutions to encourage

recycling – such as a container deposit

legislation or a ‘refund scheme’ for all

states, this is currently only in South

Australia (SA).

“What is now needed is a recycling system

that operates in places away from home

where much of this waste is being created.

Offering a refund to consumers for their

drink cans or bottles would significantly

improve recycling rates and reduce the

amount of rubbish being dumped in the

environment” Mr. Kiernan said.

Seven of the Top Ten items found on

recent Clean Up events are related to

beverage containers and are recyclable.

Finding workable solutions to encourage

behaviour change is necessary to improve

both the recycling of rubbish and broader

waste issues.

As well as highlighting important issues,

Clean Up Australia Day 2008 also achieved

some outstanding practical outcomes for

the environment.

An estimated 7,200 tonnes of rubbish was

collected from 6,000 sites across the

country. Of this there was an estimated

2,500 tonnes of recyclable cans and

bottles.

Volunteers cleaned up 1,430

schoolgrounds, 1,239 roadways, 1,042

parks, 605 coastal areas, 591 rivers and

creeks, 488 public bush land areas, 124

shops / malls, 59 outdoor transport areas

and 422 other sites.

Approximately 800,000 volunteers and

6,000 site coordinators gave up their time


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Australia

produces more

than 1.3 million

tonnes of plastic

every year.

That’s more than

71kg per person.

to come and help Clean Up the

environment.

Many of these volunteers took the extra

time to sample the rubbish collected, to

help Clean Up identify rubbish trends and

observations across the nation. This

sampling of rubbish feeds into the annual

Rubbish Report, which has been produced

by Clean Up every year since 1991.

O V E R A L L T R E NDS

This year the overall trends identified

contain both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ news.

The ‘good’ news is that the amount of

representative rubbish at each site has

decreased. The number of sites surveyed

decreased by 14% this year, as the

number of sites overall were less than the

previous year. Taking the decrease of site

numbers into account, the average number

of pieces counted at each site declined

from 408 in 2007, to 344 in 2008 – a

decrease of 15%. This decrease could be

perhaps a positive sign; that there is some

decline in people leaving rubbish in the

environment.

The ‘bad’ news is that the majority of this

rubbish is recyclable, and in theory, should

be ending up in a recycle facility rather

than in the environment. Plastic ranked the

top rubbish item once again, making up

31.7% of the total rubbish found – most of

the plastic items found are commonly

recyclable through usual municipal

collections. With measures such as efficient

public place recycling, together with

kerbside collections, many of these items

could be put back into the resource

stream, saving carbon emissions and the

environment.

The Top Ten most commonly found rubbish

items tend to have remained relatively

consistent over the years. Always the

number one most commonly found item is

the cigarette butt. This continues to be a

major waste issue across the country. The

act of littering cigarette butts has many

secondary effects such as bushfires, toxin

leaching and wildlife ingestion. Whilst

cigarette butts are not commonly

recyclable, there is no excuse for this item

not being disposed of properly.


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E X E C U T I V E

S UMMAR Y

RUBBISH SURVEYED

� Of the 6,000 sites cleaned up

around Australia, 1,058 or 17.6%

were analysed for this report. The

% analysed was consistent with

last year’s participation in the

Rubbish Report.

� The total number of sites analysed

decreased from 1,203 to 1,058 – a

decline of 12%.

� The quality of data returned

increased on 2007 results, with

98% being determined as ‘valid’.

� More than 7,200 tonnes of rubbish

was collected during the Clean Up

Australia campaign across

Australia.

� This year a total of 363,854 items

formed the sample of rubbish counted for analysis.

SITES SURVEYED

� New South Wales (NSW) once

again returned the highest number

of surveys (421), and this year

Queensland (QLD) once again

returned the second most surveys

(223) ahead of Victoria (VIC)

(192).

� Roadways were the most surveyed

sites, accounting for 19.9% of all

sites surveyed.

� The least number of surveys were

completed at Shops / Malls,

accounting for 0.6% of all sites surveyed.

MAJOR SOURCES OF RUBBISH

� For the 14th consecutive year

plastics made up the majority of

rubbish collected accounting for

31.7% of surveyed rubbish. This is

slightly down from 2007 when

plastic was 33.1%, and 33.7% in

2006.

� Miscellaneous items moved up to

second place again (this source

dropped to 4th place in 2007) in

terms of being a major source of

rubbish. This category achieved

17.7% of the total because it

contains the number one rubbish

item found, cigarette butts.

� Metal / Aluminium was the third

largest source of rubbish making

up 14.6% of the total. This shows

an increase on last year from 5th

place, and 13.4%.

� Glass was found to make up 13.1%

of the total, a 2.4% decrease from

last year taking it down from

second to fourth place.

� Paper was the 5th most common

type of rubbish found (12.6%),

followed by Polystyrene (4.8%),

Wood (3.8%) and Rubber (1.7%)

THE TOP TEN RUBBISH ITEMS

� Cigarette Butts were once again

the most commonly found rubbish

item in 2008 for the 13th year in a

row, accounting for 29.6% of the

Top Ten, and 14.5% of all items

surveyed. This shows an increase

on 2006 of 5.9% among the Top

Ten, and 2.3% of all items.

� Glass alcoholic beverage containers

climbed to 2nd place from 4th place

from last year. The item

represented 5.4% of the Top Ten

and 11.1% of the total.

� Close behind was plastic chip and

confectionery bags, with 5.4% of

the Top Ten and 11.0% of all items

found, and holding a consistent 3rd

place again this year.

� Plastic bottle caps & lids ranked

fourth (4.2%) in the Top Ten and

made up 8.5% of the total rubbish

items surveyed.

� Glass pieces dropped to 5th place,

from 2nd last year, accounting for

3.7% of the Top Ten and 7.5% of

all items.

� PET drink containers rose from 9th

place to 6th place in 2008, making

up 3.6% of the Top Ten and 7.3%

of the total.

� Metal / Aluminium items took out

the next three rankings (7th, 8th

and 9th) with alcoholic beverage

cans making up 6.9% of the Top


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Interesting items

found included: a

microwave oven, a

toilet, locked cash

boxes, Christmas

decorations,

binoculars, a

slippery dip!

Ten, soft drink cans at 6.6% and

metal bottle caps at 6.0%.

� The 10th most common items found

were small pieces of paper making

up 2.7% of the total items found

and 5.6% of the Top Ten.

� Glass soft drink bottles just missed

out on a Top Ten spot, coming in at

11th place and 2.7% of all rubbish items.

MOST POLLUTED SITE TYPES

� There was an overall decrease of

15% in the average pieces of

rubbish found at each site in 2008

from 408 to 344 pieces.

� Outdoor transport showed up as

the most ‘polluted’ site type with

the most pieces of rubbish found at

each site on average. The high

average value of 662 pieces per

site can be explained by the small

sample size of 7, and a couple of

sites finding a large number of a

particular type of rubbish such as

cigarette butts.

� Roadsides were in fact found to be

second most ‘polluted’ with an

average of 408 pieces per site. This

demonstrated a 15.5% increase on

the previous year and with one of

the highest sample sizes, this was

one of the only categories to have

found an increase in the number of

pieces found.

� The Park / Waterfront category

showed the third highest average

number of rubbish pieces per site

at 362, representing a 9.1%

decline on 2007 results.

� Rivers / Creeks also declined to

359 pieces (4%) on last year.

� School Grounds showed a marked

decline as well, of 28% and an

average of 341 pieces.

� Beach / Coastal areas and public

bushland decreased. With Public

Bushland being most notable with a

54% decrease.

� Shops / Malls declined by 58%

however as with Outdoor Transport

areas, this decline represents a

very small sample size.

� The overall decline on the number

of rubbish pieces at most site

types, giving an average of 344

pieces continues a longer term

trend of decline, with some

fluctuations. In 2004 there was an

average 592 pieces and in 2005 it

was 507 pieces, so this 15%

decline on last year is a strong

indication that rubbish at sites is declining.

K E Y F I ND I NG S


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� The average pieces of rubbish at

each site dropped by an overall

15%, with most site types declining

in number; notably Public Bushland

by 54%. Roadsides went against

the trend and increased in their

average by 15.5%.

� The amount of recyclable materials

found dominated the Top Ten with

7 of the 10 items related to

beverage containers and commonly

recyclable – making up a total of

53.8% of the Top Ten.

� The number of cigarette butts

found experienced a decline from

2006 to 2007 and a 5.9% increase

in 2008. Cigarette butts still

dominate significantly, accounting

for over double of any other items

in the Top Ten.

� Eight out of the Top Ten items are related to packaging.

K E Y S U R V E Y

R E S U L T S

PLASTIC

Plastic was once again the most common

source of rubbish found accounting for

31.7% of all rubbish found (a 1.4%

decrease from 2007). This reveals a slight

trend of decline since 2004 when plastic

comprised 37% of all sources of rubbish.

Since 1991, Plastics have made up

between 26.8 and 41.4% of all rubbish

collected on Clean Up Day.

GLASS

The amount of glass rubbish surveyed

decreased this year to 13.3% (down 2.2%

from 2007). Interestingly, the usual top

category of glass pieces was overtaken by

glass alcoholic beverage bottles which

made up 41.5% of all glass, or 5.4% of the

total rubbish found.

MISCELLANEOUS

Miscellaneous items increased slightly

(3.3%) from last year, comprising 17.7%

of all items found. The main item in the

miscellaneous category which ranks this so

high is cigarette butts, which make up

82.3% of this category.

RUBBER

Rubber regained its place this year as the

smallest source of rubbish surveyed,

making up just 1.7% of the total, a decrease from 2.3% in 2007.

WOOD

Wood was also a relatively small source of

rubbish making up just 3.8% of all rubbish

found. This showed an increase of 2%

from 2007. Within this category, corks

accounted for 55.8%, ice cream sticks for

20.2% and construction materials for 15%.

PAPER AND CARDBOARD

Paper and Cardboard contributed 12.6% of

the total rubbish found, which was a

decrease from both 2006 and 2007 (down 3.3% over the two years).

METAL AND ALUMINIUM

Metal and Aluminium accounted for 14.6%

of the total sources of rubbish, which was

a slight increase of 0.7% from 2007. The

main four items which are found within this

category are alcoholic cans (23%), soft

drink cans (22%), bottle caps/lids (20.1%)

and foil / confectionary wrappers (14.4%).

POLYSTYRENE

Polystyrene was another relatively small

source of rubbish, making up 4.8% of the

total. This was a slight increase on last

year’s 4.4%, though a decrease from 2006 (5.2%).

ME THODO LOG Y


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The Clean Up Australia Rubbish Report is a

snapshot of the rubbish collected on Clean

Up Australia Day. First produced in 1991,

the Rubbish Report has proven to be an

invaluable resource in identifying trends in

the types and dispersal of rubbish

throughout Australia and highlights the

importance of avoiding, reducing, re-using and recycling rubbish.

Rubbish Report Survey Forms are issued

with Clean Up kits to site coordinators. The

past few years, rubbish report forms have

been distributed to all site coordinators

and included as part of the ‘End of Clean

Up Report’ though still positioned as an

optional exercise. This has increased the

number of Rubbish Report surveys filled out.

The survey requires those taking part to

identify and count a proportion of the

rubbish collected at their site. One in five

bags of rubbish collected is analysed, with

a maximum of 10 bags surveyed per site.

If less than five bags are collected, the

contents of just one bag are counted. As

we begin to see an increase in sites which

separate recyclable items from non-

recyclable, this methodology will need an

adjustment so that a sample of both

recyclable and non-recyclable items is assured.

Each site surveyed is classified by the

category that best describes its location.

The categories are: Beaches/Coastal,

Outdoor Transport areas,

Parks/Waterfronts, Public Bushland,

Rivers/Creeks, Roadways, School Grounds,

Shops/Malls and other. These categories

have been consistent since the rubbish report first was designed in 1991.

The Rubbish Report survey form lists a

total of 82 specific waste items grouped by

type of source material, with 11 'other'

categories in each section for those items which do not fit easily within the list.

Source categories are: plastic (further

divided into plastic bags, plastic bottles/

containers and plastic miscellaneous),

polystyrene, glass, rubber,

paper/cardboard, metal/aluminium (further

divided into metal/aluminium cans and

metal/aluminium miscellaneous), wood

and miscellaneous. Of the 6,000 sites

cleaned up nationally, 17.6% or 1,058

sites were analysed for this report. This

year a total of 363,854 items formed the

sample of rubbish counted for analysis.

To ensure the reliability of information that

is included in the Report, only those

surveys that are accurately completed are considered valid and used in the Report.

This Report would not be possible without

the commitment of thousands of Clean Up

Australia Day site coordinators and

volunteers who take the time to complete

a survey of the rubbish collected at their chosen site.

Their efforts to make a difference and help

Clean Up Australia are very much appreciated.

The Rubbish Report is intended to act as a

source of information to evaluate the

effectiveness of litter campaigns such as

Clean Up Australia Day. It is not intended

as a definitive tool for analysis of litter and the littering behaviour of Australians.


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SURV E Y ED S I T E S

Data on all rubbish items surveyed has been collated and presented into two large tables,

organised by Site Type and State.

Please refer to separate data tables ‘Surveyed Items by Site Type’ and ‘Surveyed Items by

State’ for all results.

R E T U RN ED V A L I D S UR V E Y S B Y S T A T E

The 'Returned Valid Surveys by State' chart shows the number of valid Rubbish Report

surveys received from each State. This year, three States increased their proportion of

returned valid surveys compared to other States from last year’s proportions (Northern

Territory, Victoria and NSW) and the rest decreased. QLD and SA returned the most

percentage of surveys compared to actual sites (21%), and the lowest percentage of surveys returned to site numbers was Western Australia (13%).


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R E T U RN ED V A L I D S UR V E Y S B Y S I T E

T Y P E

The 'Returned Valid Surveys by Site Type' chart shows the number of valid Rubbish Report

surveys received from each site type. This year, three different site types decreased their

proportion of returned valid surveys compared to other site types from last year’s proportions

(Outdoor Transport, Public Bushland and Rivers/Creeks) and the rest increased slightly.

Rivers / Creeks and Public Bushland returned the most surveys against the number of actual

sites in that category (36%, 32%) while the Shops/Malls category returned the least with just 5% of surveys returned to site number.


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MA JO R S OURC E S O F R U B B I S H

The 'Major Sources of Rubbish' chart shows the types of rubbish surveyed and the proportion

they represent of the total rubbish surveyed.

Plastics were the most common rubbish items removed for the fourteenth consecutive year.

Miscellaneous items contributed to 18% of the major sources of rubbish. Metal / Aluminium,

Glass and Paper all comprised a similar proportion of the major sources at 14%, 13% and

12% respectively. Polystyrene, Wood and Rubber made up the three smallest sources of rubbish at 5%, 4% and 2% of the total.


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H I S TO R I C A L COM P A R I S ON

The Major Sources of Rubbish over time show an interesting picture. Eighteen years of data

from sites surveyed show that plastics have long been the dominant rubbish item collected.

The Foam/Polystyrene category, whilst making up a small percentage of overall sources, has

experienced a decline from the early nineties where it made up 8-10% of the total, to

recently, where it averages around 4-5% of the total.

Glass has experienced some peaks and troughs over the eighteen years, always ranging from

10 to 17% of the total. Rubber has always made up a very small proportion of the major

sources of rubbish and has remained relatively consistent over the years with a range of

0.7% to 2.3% of the total.

Paper has shown a relatively wide range of results, from making up a quarter of all rubbish

found to 12% of the total. Metals have fluctuated in their proportion of major sources over

time, with a variation of 7% over the years. Wood has always made up a small proportion

and has only varied by 2.1% over the 18 years of data.

Miscellaneous items have played an increasingly important part in the major sources of

rubbish. In the early nineties this category was always well under 10% of the total, but

recent years have seen an increase to 16-19% of the total - possibly reflecting an increase in

cigarette butts found over time.


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Historical data used in this graph is shown here:

Year

Plastics

%

Foam/

Poly

%

Glass

%

Rubber

%

Paper

%

Metals

%

Wood

%

Misc.

%

Total

Items

%

1991 35.0 8.6 14.4 1.5 13.6 14.3 2.8 9.6 100.0

1992 26.8 9.5 17.1 1.2 24.9 11.9 3.7 4.8 100.0

1993 40.8 7.7 13.3 1.0 18.9 13.9 1.7 2.8 100.0

1994 41.4 6.3 13.0 0.7 21.6 12.3 2.0 2.6 100.0

1995 31.2 4.0 10.3 0.7 24.9 18.1 3.0 7.8 100.0

1996 33.4 8.7 10.1 1.3 19.9 13.6 1.8 11.2 100.0

1997 27.0 7.5 14.7 1.0 18.3 17.9 2.3 11.2 100.0

1998 29.1 6.6 13.4 1.2 19.5 14.5 2.4 13.3 100.0

1999 36.0 6.8 12.3 1.4 15.0 13.6 1.9 13.0 100.0

2000 32.1 4.9 10.1 1.2 15.2 19.1 2.5 14.9 100.0

2001 33.7 4.8 12.1 1.2 13.8 15.2 2.0 17.2 100.0

2002 33.4 6.9 11.8 1.2 14.1 14.1 2.3 16.2 100.0

2003 36.0 3.5 11.8 1.3 17.7 15.2 1.7 12.7 100.0

2004 37.3 4.8 11.8 1.0 12.7 13.5 1.9 17.0 100.0

2005 32.0 5.0 14.0 1.0 15.0 12.0 2.0 19.0 100.0

2006 33.7 5.2 11.7 1.8 15.9 13.2 2.1 16.4 100.0

2007 33.1 4.4 15.5 2.3 15.1 13.4 1.8 14.4 100.0

2008 31.7 4.8 13.1 1.7 12.6 14.6 3.8 17.7 100.0


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MAJOR SOURCES OF RUBBISH – ANALYSIS OF

EACH CATEGORY

P L A S T I C

Plastic was once again the most common type of rubbish found on Clean Up Australia Day

comprising 31.7% of all rubbish found. In 2008, this demonstrated a slight decrease in the

proportion of plastic items found from 33.1% in 2007 and 33.7% in 2006.

Plastic is a commonly used material and as a result has the most number of categories (31)

out of all the other sources of rubbish. The most commonly found plastic item was the chip /

confectionery bag which has dominated this category for many years.

Plastic bottle caps / lids were the second most common item found, also consistent with

previous years. PET drink containers ranked third though showed an increase from last year

by 2.3%.

Plastic bags were commonly found as well – this category is broken up into sub-categories

which make up much of the plastic found, including: garbage bags (6.5%), supermarket /

retail bags (5.7%) and food bags (4.5%).

The ‘other’ category is grouped together here for presentation but includes 20 different types

of items, each with small percentages including plastic cups, utensils, nappies, milk crates,

PVC piping and other containers.

There was a total of 115, 216 pieces of plastic collected as part of the rubbish report. The

most pieces of plastic found per site type were at school grounds, rivers and coastal areas

with over 100 pieces of plastic found on average per site. Bushland uncovered the least

plastic with an average of 61 pieces.

The overall average of plastic items found across all site types was 109 pieces – a significant

decrease on last year’s result of 135 pieces per site, though consistent with 2006 and 2005.


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P O L Y S T Y R E N E

Polystyrene accounted for 4.8% of all rubbish found, up slightly on 2007 when it represented

4.4%. There were 17,306 pieces of polystyrene counted in this survey.

Polystyrene pieces were the most commonly found polystyrene item, making up 37.2% of the

total. This was an increase on 2007, which was 29%. This year fast food containers

accounted for 28.1% of polystyrene rubbish, consistent with 2007. There was also a

consistent result with polystyrene cups / plates making up 18.9% of rubbish. Polystyrene

packaging made up 14.9% of this category.

Polystyrene was found across all site types, though predominantly found at parks, rivers and

roadsides. These site types averaged between 19 and 23 polystyrene pieces each. This shows

a shift from previous years when polystyrene was more frequently found at shops and school

ground sites – particularly shops where the average number of pieces found at these sites

was 31 and in 2008 was just 6. The small sample size of both shops and polystyrene can

reflect more dramatic shifts year-to-year.

The overall average number of polystyrene pieces at sites found across the country was 16, a

slight decrease from last year, which was 18.

It is interesting to note that when looking back at data from the past 18 years, polystyrene,

in the early nineties used to make up a lot more of the proportion of rubbish found, double

than what it is now. This could be explained by a trend over the last decade for food outlets

and manufacturers to opt for alternative packaging (including paper and cardboard) as there

is a general public awareness and perception now that polystyrene is not the most

environmentally friendly packaging material. It is not commonly recycled through kerbside or

general waste collections and is a petroleum based product.


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G L A S

Glass accounted for 13.1% of all rubbish surveyed in 2008. This demonstrated a slight

decrease from 2007, with 15.5%. The proportion of glass among all major sources of rubbish

appears to fluctuate year to year, though what does remain consistent are the most

commonly found items within this category.

Both alcoholic beverage bottles and glass pieces make up the majority of glass items found.

In 2008, alcoholic beverage bottles took the number one spot at 41.5% of the total, and

glass pieces totalled 28%.

Glass pieces are an interesting category here, as it could be ascertained that in fact glass

pieces are glass bottles which have been broken in the environment, and are counted as

more items than its original form. Often we are unable to tell what type of glass bottle these

pieces have come from, and therefore they have their own category.

With soft drink bottles third at 18%, and fruit juice bottles fourth at 5.2%, it can be seen that

all but 7% of every glass item found is related to beverage containers. When analysing just

beverage containers, glass pieces are excluded as they skew the results due to the number of

pieces which might make up one beverage container.

There was an average of 45 glass pieces found at each site. The different site types which

show the most average number of pieces per site are: outdoor transport (212), roadways

(57), bushland (53) and coastal areas (50). The high result for outdoor transport may again

be explained by such a small sample size. The smallest number of glass pieces per site was

found at shops and school grounds.


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R U B B E R

Rubber regained its spot as the smallest source of rubbish in 2008, having lost it for the first

time to wood last year. Rubber made up just 1.7% of the total items found, and only 6,145

pieces surveyed nationally.

Thongs and rubber shoes slipped from the most commonly found rubber item to fourth place

this year going from 48% to 14.4% of the total. Rubber gloves regained their number one

spot from 2006 as the most commonly found item, making up 43.1% of the total. Tyres also

dominated this category, with 21.6% of the total. Condoms made up 16.3% of items found.

Beach and coastal areas were by far the most likely to find rubber items with an average of

13 items found per site. A high proportion of rubber gloves were found in school grounds,

giving this site type an average of 11 items per site. Most other site types only found around

4 rubber items per site.

An overall average of rubber items found at each site was 6, a decrease from 2007 results

which was an average of 9 pieces.

The commonly found rubber glove is also an interesting item as they are often used to assist

volunteers clean up, which inadvertently may explain why they are often found at clean up

sites. However CUA and many volunteers often prefer to use heavy duty or gardening gloves.

Fortunately most of the tyres found can be recycled through recycling programs such as

TyreCycle.


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P A P E R & C A R D B O A R D

Paper and cardboard accounted for 12.6% of the total rubbish surveyed in 2008,

representing a continual decrease from 15.1% in 2007 and 15.9% in 2006. There was a total

of 46,019 pieces of paper surveyed as part of this report. There are quite a number of

categories in the paper section, 15 in total, which is why many have been grouped together

for presentation in this graph under ‘other’. The other category contains items such as milk

cartons, egg cartons, wine cask boxes, cardboard boxes and paper cups.

The top four items remained unchanged from 2006 and 2007, with small paper pieces the

most common type of paper/cardboard rubbish found, accounting for 21.6%, down slightly

from 29% in 2007, followed by fast food packaging (16.5%), cigarette packets (11.3%) and

paper bags (8.4%).

The next three most commonly found items at around 7% of the total were drink cartons,

napkins / tissues and newspapers / books / magazines.

Roadways, schoolgrounds and outdoor transport areas all showed the highest average

number of paper pieces per site, with an average of 59 pieces found per site. All other site

types experienced relatively high averages as well (around 32 pieces per site), with the

exception of shops / malls which showed an average of just 14 pieces per site.

It is worth noting that paper is easily recyclable and many of these items could have been

recycled if they were disposed of in recycling bins. Often when exposed to environmental

factors, paper and cardboard become contaminated beyond the capability to recycle them.

This is unfortunate as paper and cardboard, when sent to landfill, breaks down thus releasing

methane which is ~23 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Recycling

paper demonstrates a huge environmental saving for both trees and carbon emissions.


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M E T A L / A L U M I N I U M

Metal and aluminium represented 14.6% of all the rubbish surveyed on Clean Up Australia

Day, which demonstrated a slight increase from 2007 (13.4%) and 2006 (13.6%). There was

53,254 pieces of metal found at surveyed sites.

The top three metal / aluminium items found all contributed relatively similar proportions;

alcoholic beverage cans (23%), soft drink cans (22%) and bottle caps (20.1%). Foil

confectionery wrappers were not far behind these, with 14.4% of the total items.

The ‘other’ category here has been grouped together for presentation, but represents 12

other types of items, all which comprised no more than 4% of the total. These items include

metal pipe, wire, aerosol cans, construction materials, food cans, paint tins and appliances.

Outdoor transport sites found the most metal / aluminium items per site of 101 pieces. Parks

and roadways were the next two site types to find the most average number of items at 63

pieces. Bushland and rivers averaged 44 and 45 pieces per site respectively and the least

pieces of metal /aluminium were found at shops with an average of just 7 pieces per site.

Aluminium is a high energy intensive production material but at the same time is incredibly

effective in the recycling process. Often aluminium cans left in the outdoors are still easily

recyclable which creates a great opportunity to recycle these items on Clean Up Australia

Day.

As with glass, many of the top items found in the metal / aluminium category are related to

beverage containers. When looking at each State in Australia, it is interesting to note that the

average number of aluminium beverage cans (alcoholic and soft drink) and metal bottle caps

found at a site in SA is just 23, whereas the rest of the States average 48 per site. This could

be explained by the largely successful container deposit legislation (CDL) put in place by the

SA Government and currently being explored by other States.


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W O O D

Wood made up the second lowest percentage of rubbish surveyed on Clean Up Australia Day

with just 3.8% of the total. There were 13,936 pieces of wood surveyed for this report, and

the majority of these were bottle corks, comprising 55.8% of the total.

This demonstrated a large increase from last year, where corks only ranked fourth of all wood

items with just 7.8% of the total. Ice cream sticks halved their contribution to the total

compared with last year when they made up 47.8% of the wood items found. Construction

materials decreased somewhat from 20% last year to 15% this year, as did wood pieces

which made up 18% last year.

Rivers and creeks showed the highest frequency of wood items found compared to all other

site types with an astounding average of 39 pieces per site. All other site types revealed an

average of 10 pieces or less per site. Of all the wood pieces found at rivers and creeks

(8,246), 89% or 7,332 of these were corks.

The total average number of wood pieces found across all site types was 13, a significant

increase from last year which was 7 pieces per site.


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M I S C E L L A N E O U S

Miscellaneous items were the second largest source of rubbish in 2008, showing an increase

from fourth place in 2007. These items represented 17.7% of the total items found, a 3.3%

increase from last year, though relatively consistent with the year before.

As they have been since the first Rubbish Report in 1991, cigarette butts are by far the most

common miscellaneous item found, accounting for 82.3%, a slight decrease from 85% in

2007 and 88% in 2006. They are also the most common item found out of all the rubbish

collected on Clean Up Australia Day. There was a total of 64,252 miscellaneous items found,

52,880 of which were cigarette butts.

The other, relatively small categories under miscellaneous, are carpet (4.6%), food scraps

(2.6%) and clothing (2.1%). There were 7 categories which were grouped into ‘other’ here,

all of which made up 8.4% of the total. These items included car machine parts, syringes,

batteries, ceramics and furniture.

Miscellaneous items were most commonly found at outdoor transport areas and roadways

averaging over 100 pieces per site. Not far behind this were parks and waterfronts with an

average of 87 pieces per site. Coastal areas, rivers and school grounds averaged 44 pieces

per site. The least common site type to find miscellaneous items was shops / malls with an

average of just 12 pieces per site.


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THE TOP TEN RUBBISH ITEMS

The Top Ten rubbish items found at

surveyed sites across the country are

shown in this chart.

The first figure is each item as a

percentage of the other items in the Top

Ten. The second figure shows each items’

percentage among all other items

surveyed. The Top Ten made up 49.1% of

the total rubbish items surveyed. This is a

slight decrease from the past few years

where the Top Ten have made up 51% of

the total.

Cigarette Butts were the most commonly

found item for the thirteenth year in a row.

In 2008 this was no exception and in fact a

slight increase on previous years shows

cigarette butts make up 29.6% of the Top

Ten and 14.5% of all items.

Glass alcoholic beverage containers

climbed to 2nd place from 4th place from

last year. The item represented 5.4% of

the Top Ten and 11.1% of the total.

Close behind was plastic chip and

confectionery bags, with 5.4% of the Top

Ten and 11.0% of all items found, and

holding a consistent 3rd place again this

year.

Plastic bottle caps & lids ranked fourth

(4.2%) in the Top Ten and made up 8.5% of the total rubbish items surveyed.

Glass pieces dropped to 5th place, from 2nd

last year, accounting for 3.7% of the Top Ten and 7.5% of all items.

PET drink containers rose from 9th place to

6th place in 2008, making up 3.6% of the

Top Ten and 7.3% of the total.

Metal / Aluminium items took out the next

three rankings (7th, 8th and 9th) with

alcoholic beverage cans making up 6.9%

of the Top Ten, soft drink cans at 6.6% and metal bottle caps at 6.0%.

The 10th most common items found were

small pieces of paper making up 2.7% of


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the total items found and 5.6% of the Top Ten.

Glass soft drink bottles just missed out on

a Top Ten spot, coming in at 11th place

and 2.7% of all rubbish items.

Seven of the Top Ten items were related

to beverage containers including bottle

caps and glass pieces. These beverage

container related items made up 26.4% of

the Top Ten, and 53.8% of all rubbish

items.

Plastic supermarket bags slipped a further

few places to 18th from last year’s 15th

place. There was a decrease in their

percentage of total rubbish from 2.1% to

1.8%.

The same seven of the Top Ten items

which are related to beverage containers

also are the recyclable items among the

Top Ten.

Glass alcoholic beverage bottles, plastic

bottle caps & lids, glass pieces, PET drink

containers, aluminium alcoholic beverage

cans, soft drink cans and metal bottle caps

are all now recyclable.

Cigarette butts, chips and confectionery

wrappers and small paper pieces

(presuming they are contaminated from

being in the environment) are not easily

recyclable.

MOST ‘POLLUTED ’ S ITES

The 'Total Rubbish Distribution' chart identifies the most ‘polluted’ sites surveyed according to

average number of rubbish items found per site type surveyed.

T O T A L R U B B I S H D I S T R I B U T I O N

A v e r a g e n o . o f p i e c e s f o u n d p e r s i t e


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Glass is 100%

recyclable.

Over 30% of the

raw material used

in glass

production now

comes from

recycled glass.

There was an overall decrease of 15% in

the average pieces of rubbish found at each site in 2008 from 408 to 344 pieces.

In 2008, outdoor transport site types were

the most ‘polluted’, in that they showed

the highest average number of items per

site. There was however a small sample

size of 7 sites surveyed and a couple of

sites found a large number of a particular

type of rubbish such as cigarette butts.

Second to this, roadways showed a 15.5%

increase from last year in the amount of

rubbish found at each site. This was the

only other site type to show an increase in

the average number of pieces.

All other site types showed a decline in the

average number of pieces surveyed. Public

bushland showed a marked decline of

54%, as did shops / malls – though again, the sample size for shops / malls is only 6.

The park / waterfront category showed the

third highest average number of rubbish

pieces per site at 362, representing a 9.1% decline on 2007 results.

River / creeks also declined to 359 pieces

(4%) on last year.

School grounds declined 28% to an

average of 341 pieces per site. Beaches

and coastal areas declined 18.5% to 332

pieces per site.

The overall decline on the average number

of rubbish pieces at most site types, giving

an average of 344 pieces, continues a

longer term trend of decline, with some

fluctuations.

In 2004 there was an average 592 pieces

and in 2005 it was 507 pieces, so this 15%

decline on last year is a strong indication

that rubbish at sites is declining.


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SITE RUBBISH COMPOSIT ION

The 'Site Rubbish Composition' chart details the proportions of different types of rubbish

removed from each site.

In 2008 for the first time, shops / malls recorded the highest proportion of plastic surveyed at

these sites.

School grounds found more plastic than any other type of rubbish as well with 46% of the

total items found. Beach / coastal areas also found more plastic than any other source of

rubbish.

Outdoor transport areas recorded the most proportion of glass, at 32%, over any other

rubbish type.

Glass and Metal / aluminium were the most commonly found rubbish type at public bushland

sites.

Miscellaneous items comprised the highest proportion of rubbish items found on roadsides –

so too did parks / waterfronts which found an equivalent proportion of plastic as well.

For a more detailed analysis of rubbish distribution across different site categories, see

'Number of Surveyed Items by Site Type' table.

Shops / malls

School grounds

Roadways

River / creeks

Public bushland

Parks / waterfront

Outdoor transport

Beach coastal areas


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CASE STUDY – THE

BARWON RIVER

The Barwon River is integral to the natural

environment of Geelong and is one of the

main sources of Geelong’s water supply.

The river is a popular area used for

recreational activities such as rowing,

boating, water skiing and fishing.

In 2008, Parks Victoria agreed to partner

with CUA to help the Geelong community,

schools and businesses clean up the

Barwon River environment.

Parks Victoria’s vision, which is shared

with other local environmental

management agencies, is to create a place

of great local and regional pride by

involving the community in the protection

and enhancement of the Barwon River.

Activities will improve the various parks,

reserves and trails along the 30 kilometres

of the river from Geelong across the

Bellarine Peninsula.

PARTICIPATION

This special focus on the Barwon river

region was centered around Clean Up

Australia Day on 2 March, 2008. As well as

participation in Business Clean Up Day,

Schools Clean Up Day and the Community

Clean Up, activities also included a

business training forum, teachers’

workshop and media launch.

There were 2,295 volunteers participating

in these activities across 86 sites in the

region. Over 35 schools and 8 businesses

in the area lended their support to the

event.

RUBBISH COLLECTED

Rubbish items collected were varied, from

the ever persistent aluminium cans, plastic

bottles, cigarette butts, plastic bags and

disposable nappies to illegally dumped

items such as whitegoods, car bodies, a

toilet, shopping trolley’s and construction

materials.

The following information was gathered

from returned volunteer Rubbish Reports.

The most common forms of rubbish

collected were:

� Cigarette Butts

� Plastic Bags

� Broken Glass

� Take-away containers

Possible source of these rubbish items:

� People discarding items;

particularly from take-away

outlets

� Newspapers and flyers

Sites where rubbish items are most

common:

� Along the River Bank

� In the River

� Around park land


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RECYCLING TRIAL

Local councils have played a vital role in

the success of Clean Up Australia Day in

two major ways: firstly, by promoting the

event to community groups and secondly

by collecting the rubbish after the event.

In 2008, a total of 75 groups (schools,

business and community) were involved in

a recycling trial.

As part of the Barwon River focus, CUA

trialled a recycling program in five council

areas:

• Greater Geelong City Council

• Queenscliffe Borough

• Colac-Otway Shire Council

• Golden Plains Shire Council

• Surf City Coast Shire Council

Materials provided to site coordinators for

Clean Up Australia Day traditionally

included white polypropylene bags for

rubbish collection.

As part of this trial, each registered site

coordinator, whose site fell within these

council areas, was issued with 15 yellow

recycling bags.

Each yellow recycling bag listed which

items should be placed in the bag,

including: aluminium cans, glass bottles,

steel cans, plastic containers, clean paper

or cardboard.

CUA would like to be able to use this trial

to accurately report on the recyclable

items which have been diverted from

landfill. The raw materials and energy

savings would then be calculable and

together we could communicate the

benefit of Clean Up Australia Day, not only

in terms of removing rubbish but also in

terms of resource recovery and carbon

emissions saved.

Barwon Regional Waste Management

Group (BRWMG) has been retained to sort

and record the recyclables collected in the

region.

From the Rubbish Report results, a sample

of 10 sites was taken from across the

Barwon Region. These 10 sites were made

up of:

� 1 beach / coastal site

� 1 public bushland

� 3 school grounds

� 3 parks / waterways

� 2 roadways

All 10 of these sites participated in the

recycling trial. It can be seen how effective

recycling can be on clean up sites by

looking at the composition of the rubbish

collected and the potential for it to be

recycled.

A total of 10,529 pieces of rubbish were

surveyed from these sites. This included

405 plastic bags, 626 aluminium cans,

1,663 glass bottles and 191 plastic bottles.

An analysis was done on the major sources

of rubbish at these sites:

COMPOSITION OF RUBBISH

SURVEYED AT BARWON SITES

Within these major sources of rubbish,

most items are recyclable, provided they

are not too contaminated. A recycling

facility such as the one in the Geelong

area, with the expertise of the Barwon

Regional Waste Management Group

translates to very effective recycling

results, and great outcomes for the

environment.


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MAJOR SPONSORS

SPONSORS

SUPPLIERS

For more information visit www.cleanup.org.au or call 1800 CUA DAY (1800 282 329).

Clean Up Australia Ltd, 18 Bridge Road, Glebe NSW 2037

clean up australia day rubbish report 2008

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