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Clean Up Australia Rubbish Report 2016
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Contents Introduction............................................................................................. 4 7 Executive Summary................................................................................... Sites Surveyed........................................................................................ 9 Rubbish Sources..................................................................................... 11 Top Ten Rubbish Items............................................................................ 12 Site Types................................................................................................ 16 Methodology........................................................................................... 19 Returned Surveys by State..................................................................... 21 Returned Surveys by Site Type.............................................................. 23 Top Ten Rubbish Items............................................................................ 25 Major Sources of Rubbish...................................................................... 26 Historial Comparrison............................................................................. 29 Plastics.................................................................................................... 30 Miscellaneous Items............................................................................... 33 Metal and Aluminium............................................................................. 34 Paper & Cardboard................................................................................. 37 Glass....................................................................................................... 38 Expanded Polystyrene............................................................................ 41 Rubber..................................................................................................... 42 Wood....................................................................................................... 45 Site Rubbish Composition........................................................................46 The Great Northern Clean Up................................................................. 49 Sponsors and Supporters....................................................................... 50
With thanks to our Sponsors and Supporters: Major Partner
Partners
Corporate Partner
Suppliers
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Introduction In 2016 Clean Up focused community attention on encouraging action with the catch-phrase ’Come on Australia – Let’s Go!’ – leveraging Australian’s desire to be seen taking action to remove accumulated rubbish across 6,795 Clean Up Day, 96 Great Northern Clean Up [north of the Tropic of Capricorn] and 143 Everyday Clean Up sites nationally. An estimated 562,697 volunteers removed around 15,312.2 tonnes of rubbish in 2016. Over the last 26 years, volunteers have donated more than 31 million hours caring for the environment through Clean Up Australia Day, by removing more than 331 thousand ute loads of rubbish from 165,926 registered sites across the country. To give context of the volume this represents – it’s end to end fully laden utes from Sydney to Brisbane via the coastline. This Rubbish Report is a snapshot of the rubbish they removed from our parks, schools, bushland, creeks, beaches and roadways in 2016. Consistent with 2015, beverage containers and their associated rubbish have outstripped cigarette butts and their associated rubbish as the Number One rubbish group within the National Top 10. In 2016 beverage containers and their associated rubbish represented 31.3% of plastics [35.8% in 2015], 51.3% of metals [70.7% in 2015] and 78.7% of glass [63.4% in 2015]. Clean Up Day, Everyday sites and the Great Northern Clean Up would not be possible without the generous financial support of our sponsors. Our 2016 Clean Up Australia Day major partner was Shop-A-Docket.
McDonald’s continued their support as founding partner and the Australian Government National Landcare Programme granted the campaign an additional year of funding allocated to the provision of clean up materials. Becton Dickinson, Storage King and Look Print remained active suppliers. In 2016 we welcomed Cleanaway as a corporate partner commencing May 2016 as well as Australia Post which joined us as a new supplier, recognising their financial and in-kind support via reduced postage rates. Cleanaway will join the team as a major partner of Clean Up Australia Day 2017-19. We welcome and look forward to working with their teams nationally as we Clean Up with Cleanaway. It is also important to recognise the vital support that Clean Up volunteers receive from local government. In 2016, 188 Councils actively supported their communities during Clean Up Australia Day, with an additional 17 either extending or activating support for the Great Northern campaign. Councils also assist community groups with rubbish disposal from all year round clean-up activities – an extended service that we recognise with appreciation. This is the 26th Rubbish Report produced by Clean Up Australia.
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The Rubbish Report is a snapshot of rubbish removed on Clean Up Australia Day. Since 1991, the Rubbish Report has proven to be an invaluable resource in identifying trends in the types and spread of rubbish throughout
Australia. It continues to demonstrate the importance of avoiding, reducing, re-using and recycling rubbish.
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Sites Surveyed 793 End of Clean Up Reports were returned from 6,795 sites nationally. Of these 602 recorded valid data for analysis across 700 locations.
A total of 128,328 rubbish items were reported.
Content from a total of 2,707 bags, representing 26.6% of rubbish at survey sites was counted.
New South Wales [NSW] returned the highest number of valid surveys [227], followed by Victoria [159] and Queensland [95]. Parks
were the most popular sites surveyed by
communities in
2016,
followed by residential
roadways, beach and coastal areas, rivers/creeks and waterways, bushland, other locations,
shopping
malls,
locations and dive sites and
The
[non
outdoor
identified] transport
Queensland [95].
number of reports received from schools
163 in 2016 – making students the best reporters across the country. doubled to
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Rubbish Sources Plastic was the most common item, representing 39% [36% in 2015] of all rubbish items removed. This is the 22nd year that plastic has dominated the ‘Major Sources of Rubbish’. In 2016 chips and confectionery wrappers, garbage/rubbish bags, and fruit juice bottles were once again the top three plastic items reported. Miscellaneous items took the second position in 2016 at 15%. This was consistent with last year. The most common item continues to be cigarette butts reflecting 57.5% of reported items in this category. Metals held the third spot this year – recording 14% of all rubbish reported. This was a 2% decrease on 2015. Within this category, soft drink and alcoholic beverage cans dominated, representing 51.3% of metal rubbish reported [56.23% in 2015]. Foil chip and confectionery wrappers were also prevalent, representing 17.3% of counted rubbish, followed by bottle caps which came in at 14.5%. These sources were followed by paper at 13%, glass at 12%, and rubber at 1% - all of which have been consistent over the past two years. Polystyrene remained consistent with 2015 at 5%. Wood counts decreased by 1%.
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Top Ten Rubbish Items Grouped Data 1. Beverage containers 23.9%
3. Food packaging 14.7%
2. Non-food packaging 23.3%
4.Chip and 5. Plastic confectionery bags wrappers 5.4% 8.0%
7. Household 8. Non items identified 4.8% items 3.0%
9. Sanitary items 2.1%
6. Beverage related rubbish 7.3%
10. Construction materials 2.0%
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Individual
item data
2. Plastic chip & confectionery wrappers 5.6%
1. Cigarette Butts 8.6%
3. Garbage/ 4. Alcoholic rubbish bags beverage 5.5% bottles 4.9%
7. Alcoholic beverage cans 3.3%
5. Soft drink cans 3.9%
8. PET bottles 9. Plastic 3.0% bottle caps & lids 2.7%
6. Soft drink bottles 3.7%
10. Foil chip & confectionery wrappers 2.4%
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Top Ten Rubbish Items • Grouped Top 10 data made up 94.6% [97% in 2015] of reported rubbish. Individual Item Count Top 10 data = 43.6% [47.2% in 2015] • Within grouped data, beverage containers which would have been covered by a container refund scheme increased their count by 0.3% to 23.9% of the whole rubbish count [23.6% in 2015]. Within the Top 10 individual item count this group represented 18.8% of total rubbish reported – a 9.9% decrease over 2015 [28.7%] • Alcoholic beverage cans increased their individual count by 0.9%. Soft drink bottles made the Top 10 individual count for the first time • PET bottles decreased their count by 0.5%, soft drink cans by 0.9% and alcoholic beverage bottles by 0.7% • Cigarette butts decreased by 3% over 2015 findings • Plastic bags remained in the Grouped Top 10 this year, representing 5.4% [5% in 2015]. Garbage/rubbish bags represented 5.5% of the individual count, a 2.8% increase on last year • Confectionery wrappers increased by 1.3% within grouped data; with plastic confectionery wrappers increasing by 1% and foil wrappers making a comeback at 2.4% of the individual count • Seven of the Top Ten raw item count are recyclable. In 2015 this figure was 8/10 • All Top Ten raw data items are packaging related • Six of the Top Ten raw data items were again related to beverage containers.
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Site Types Student reporting of rubbish removed from school grounds doubled in 2016. While parks were the most popular community site surveyed, the highest average number of rubbish items per site [299] was recorded from waterways. This count was 20 per site lower than in 2015. In fact, all locations decreased their average count in 2016: • Parks decreased to 234 across 123 locations [282 from 215 locations in 2015] • Beach/Coastal decreased to 166 across 105 locations [357 across 98 last year] • Bushland area counts reduced to 236 across 54 sites versus 301 items across 114 sites in 2015 • School grounds reported 47.2% reduction in their average item count in 2016 = 132 from 163 sites [250 from 81 locations in 2015] • Roadways reduced their average count by 45 items to 282 per location this year [their average count in 2015 was 327 across 174 locations] • Outdoor transport locations reduced their average count by 52.5% [average 604 from 3 locations in 2015] • Shops/mall average counts reduced 44.1% to be 188 across 9 sites this year • Dive site counts reduced by 57.4% [2015 average counts = 122 across 2 locations] • 39 non-identified locations reported an average of 4 less items in 2016 [236 items from 52 locations in 2015] Interesting items found in 2016 included street signs and traffic cones, oyster farming and other fishing equipment, drug paraphernalia, vehicle parts, domestic appliances, toys and bikes, an inflatable dinghy, rubber moulding in the shape of a railway line, parade decorations, an above ground swimming pool, furniture, a bag of water bottles, raw meat, boat sail, stolen handbags [returned to the owners] assorted underwear and an array of adult toys [suggesting interesting patrons of an outdoor area].
Number of Sites by Type
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Number of Items Found by Site Type
Average Number of Items Found by Site Type
Site Type as a Percentage of Total Sites
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Methodology The figures presented in the Rubbish Report are based on a sample of Clean Up Sites, where data is collected by our dedicated volunteers. Rubbish Report Survey Forms are issued in Clean Up kits as part of the End of Clean Up Report. In 2016 the report was again also offered as an on-line option, attracting 372 respondents. The survey requires those taking part to identify and count a proportion of the rubbish removed from their site. Volunteers are asked to survey one in five bags of rubbish removed, with a maximum of six bags surveyed per site. However, a number of site coordinators survey a greater proportion. In 2016, volunteers were again asked to separate their rubbish into recyclable and nonrecyclable items, with the provision of ‘yellow’ and ‘white’ bags. The intention is to, where possible, encourage recycling of rubbish. Volunteers are asked to capture a representative sample from both types of bags. While we appreciate that the level of contamination of materials removed during clean ups will generally make them non-recyclable, we believe it is important that volunteers pause to consider how many bags of rubbish could have been recycled if it had not entered the environment. Each site surveyed is classified by the category that best describes its location. The categories are: Beaches/Coastal, Outdoor Transport Areas, Parks, Public Bushland, River/Creek/Waterway, [suburban] Roadway, School Grounds, Shop/Mall and Other. 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. ‘Other’ items are carefully analysed to capture a numeric value. 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. The Rubbish Report is a snapshot of information to show trends over time of rubbish removed at Clean Up sites during Clean Up Australia Day, the Great Northern Clean Up and Everyday Clean Up sites. It is not intended to be a definitive survey representing all rubbish found in all Australian environments.
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Returned Valid Surveys by State The ‘Returned Valid Surveys by State’ chart shows the number of valid Rubbish Report surveys received from each State. New South Wales returned the highest number of valid surveys [227], Victoria returned the second highest number [159] followed by Queensland [95].
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Returned Valid Surveys
by
Site Type
The ‘Returned Valid Surveys by Site Type’ chart shows the number of valid Rubbish Report surveys received from each site type. Of the 602 valid surveys returned, the most surveyed site type parks made up 27.6% of all sites, while the least surveyed site type, dive sites made up less than 0.1% of all sites.
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The Top Ten Rubbish Items The chart below shows the top ten rubbish items by grouped data, displayed here as a percentage of each. Grouped data made up 94.6% of all rubbish reported. Since 2013 beverage containers and their associated rubbish have topped the grouped data count, this year making up 31.3% of all rubbish counted [34% in 2015]. What is pleasing to note is that this count is now decreasing, reflecting the impact of a container refund scheme in the Northern Territory. We look forward to further reductions of beverage container counts as the NSW/ACT scheme settles in and Queensland and Western Australian schemes are rolled out. It is interesting to note that impact of such a scheme can take 2-3 years to be reflected in counts with pre-scheme bottles and cans continuing to be removed by volunteers for some time. Non-food packaging includes unidentified plastic packaging, cigarette lighters, non-PET containers, automotive oil, laundry/cleaning containers, plastic crates, paper bags, boxes, cigarette packets, wine casks, small and large pieces of paper, aerosol cans, 44 gallon drums, paint tins and cigarette butts [57.7% of items reported in this category]. Chips/confectionary wrappers counts increased by 1.3% in 2016. Counts of plastic confectionery wrappers increased by 1% and foil wrappers made a comeback at 2.4% of the individual count. Plastic bags remained in grouped Top 10 counts – representing 19.4% of all plastic items and 5.4% of all rubbish recorded this year. Top 10 Items by Number of Items Found and as a Percentage of Total Reported Rubbish
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Major Sources
of
Rubbish
The ‘Major Sources of Rubbish’ chart below shows the types of rubbish surveyed along with their proportion of the total rubbish.
Plastic Over the entire 27 years of Clean Up Australia Day, plastics have remained the dominant waste item found. This year, plastics made up 39% of all rubbish removed by volunteers [36% in 2015].
Miscellaneous Cigarette butts continue to be the largest miscellaneous waste item found, representing 57.5% of all miscellaneous items. This was a welcome decrease of 24.2% over 2015. Other miscellaneous items of significance included ceramics [25.5% of counted items], items of clothing[4.5%] and e-waste [2.75]. Unidentifiable items made up 5.1% of miscellaneous items.
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Metal
and
Aluminium
In 2016 metals were the third largest category, representing 14% of all rubbish items [16% in 2015]. Beverage containers and their caps [alcoholic and soft drink] represented 66% of all metal rubbish [70.6% last year].
Paper Paper represented 13% of all waste removed, on par with the last two years. Paper food packaging represented 24% in 2016, up 4% on last year. Paper napkins and tissues were the single most reported paper item at 13%, making up 81.4% of rubbish categorised as sanitary items [down 1% on last year].
Glass Glass reported in 2016 was also consistent as a percentage of rubbish with 2014 and 2015. Alcohol soft drink and juice bottles were once again the dominant forms of glass, making up 78.7 % of the total [96.9% in 2015]. Broken glass represented 17.8% of all glass reported [25.4% in 2015].
Expanded Polystyrene Expanded polystyrene again represented 5% of rubbish counted in 2016. Of the total polystyrene items, food packaging made up 79% [an increase of 29.3% on last year]. Pieces of polystyrene took out the single item top spot at 40.4% [31.4% last year] closely followed by fast food packaging at 22.2% [32.4% in 2015].
Rubber Rubber remained consistent as a percentage of the rubbish counted at 1%. The most significant rubber item found was gloves at 55% followed by thongs/shoes which accounted for 18.1% of all rubber items [26% in 2015] reported.
Wood At 1% wood came in with the lowest item counts in 2016. Construction materials overtook ice cream sticks representing 41.9% of the count this year [33.3% in 2015]. Ice cream sticks reflected 31%, down 5.9% on last year.
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Historical Comparrison
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Major
sources of
Rubbish - Analysis
of
Each Category
Plastics Made from non-renewable oil-based resources, plastics removed by Clean Up volunteers are not biodegradable and would, if left in situ, survive in the environment for hundreds of years. At best, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces – which is actually a worse environmental outcome, with smaller pieces entering the food chain earlier. In 2016 plastic was once again the dominant waste type reported by volunteers. Rating at 39% of all rubbish removed, plastics represented 49,887 surveyed items. A total of 30 different forms of plastic waste are categorised in the rubbish survey. They have been regrouped consistent with Top Ten Grouped data for the purposes of this graph. Plastic bags topped the single item count at 9,678, representing 19.4% of the full count [14% in 2015]. Beverage containers and their associated rubbish represented 31.4% of all plastic items removed [35.8% in 2015]. Beverage containers came in at 18% [14.9% last year], closely followed by beverage rubbish at 13.4% [20.9% in 2015]. Food packaging, including confectionery wrappers, represented 25.3%, 1.2% down on last year. Other packaging, non-identified items, toys, construction and sanitary materials represented 23.9% of all reported plastics [up 0.3% on last year].
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Miscellaneous Items 19,078 miscellaneous items were recorded in 2016 surveys. This is a decrease of 10,184 over the previous year. Cigarette butts continue to dominate this category – representing 57.7% [included in non-food packaging in the graph]. Household items again took out the second spot in 2016 [5,662 items – nearly 3 times the count of 2015], followed by clothing @ 950 items [928 in 2015 and miscellaneous other items @ 978 [863 items last year]. E-waste items counts more than doubled in 2016 @ 506 items [291 in 2015].
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Metal
and
Aluminium
As a percentage of all rubbish removed by volunteers in 2015, metals reduced 2% on 2016. Beverage containers continue to be the dominant sources of metal waste. Soft drink and alcohol containers represented 66% of all metal waste removed [56.3% in 2015]. Beverage rubbish represented 14.8% this year [14.5% in 2015]. The next most significant single item type was soft drink cans at 27.8% [30.8% last year] followed by alcoholic beverage cans at 23.5% [25.5% last year] and bottle caps at 14.8% [14.45% last year]. Confectionery wrappers increased to 17.3% [11.8% in 2015] 17,836 metal items were recorded in 2016.
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Paper
and
Cardboard
16,638 paper and cardboard items were counted in 2016. The majority of paper waste removed was again ‘Small Paper’ at 22.8% [up 2.3% on 2015]. Cumulatively non-food packaging is a key source of paper rubbish [bags, boxes, cigarette packets, large and small pieces of paper and wine casks]. In 2016 these items reflected 53.8% of all counted items [4.7% in 2015] Food packaging - paper cups, drink cartons, milk cartons, egg cartons and fast food packaging reflected 24% of all paper surveyed [26.2% in 2015]. Cigarette packets were the again fourth most reported single paper/cardboard item [1,873 items]. This is a decrease of 452 items from last year.
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Glass In 2015, glass accounted for 12% of surveyed items, on par with the last two years. Whole beverage containers accounted for 78.7% of glass counted in 2016 [71.3% in 2015]. Broken glass accounted for 17.9% of rubbish reported, down 7.5% on last year. Volunteers counted 14,934 glass items in their 2016 Rubbish Surveys.
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Expanded Polystyrene Consistent with the previous year, expanded polystyrene again accounted for 5% of the rubbish recorded in 2016. Expanded polystyrene is categorised separately from all other plastics due to the unique environmental hazards it poses. Composed of around 95% air, polystyrene is highly mobile with the potential to travel long distances. Its soft structure means it’s likely to fragment into pieces and can harm wildlife upon ingestion. The high likelihood of breaking into smaller pieces can be seen with over 40% [31.5% in 2015] of all expanded polystyrene found being either partially or completely fragmented. Food packaging, comprising fast food containers, cups/plates and pieces accounted for 79% [81% in 2015] of reported rubbish. Other packaging represented 21%, up 4.6% on last year. Volunteers recorded a total 6,522 items of polystyrene.
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Rubber In 2016 rubber accounted for 1% of rubbish reported – on par with 2014 and 2015. Clothing – thongs/shoes and gloves were the most common items representing 73% [45.2% in 2015] of reported rubber. Tyres counts reduced to 9.3% [24.3% in 2015]. A total of 1,802 rubber items were recorded in 2016 surveys.
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Wood At 1% of reported items, wood was the least likely rubbish type reported in 2016. Construction materials represented 60.9% of surveyed items this year, a 14.5% increase. Ice cream sticks were again less in evidence this year, accounting for 31% of all wood items reported [40% in 2015]. Pieces of wood came in at #3 in the count – recording 310 items. Surveys reported 1,631 wood items nationally.
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Site
rubbish
Composition
The graph below outlines the proportions of different types of rubbish removed from each site as a percentage of all rubbish reported.
Plastics were the dominant material removed by volunteers, averaging 31.3% across all site types. This is a 1.3% decrease on 2015. Outdoor transport sites topped the list of average item count of plastics, followed by river/creeks, bushland, parks, beach/coastal areas, and other [non-identified] locations. Metals, with an average of 18.1% [14.2% in 2015] are most likely to be found at dive sites, followed by bushland and roadsides. Miscellaneous items averaged 17% [14.4% in 2015] across all sites, with the highest counts being at school grounds, shops/malls and in parks. Glass, which averaged 14% [13.5% in 2015] across all sites, was predominantly found at dive sites, in bushland [where it is a fire hazard] and along roadsides. Paper and cardboard, with an average of 11.9% [15.4% in 2015] are most likely to be found at dive sites, outdoor transport areas and roadways. Polystyrene averaged 5.1% [7.1% in 2015] across all sites. Shops/malls topped the average list, followed by parks and waterways. Outdoor transport locations were the main site at which rubber was reported. Wood with an average of 1.3% [1.5% last year] in the form of small items such as icecream sticks were most likely to be reported from shops/malls, outdoor transport areas and school grounds. Larger pieces were more often reported at beach/coastal locations, parks and bushland [via illegal dumping].
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The Great Northern Cleanup In response to local community and government feedback that March is not a great time to be working in the tropical sun, The Great Northern Clean Up was piloted in 2009. Since then an estimated 30,054 volunteers have removed around 1,795 ute loads of rubbish from 713 registered sites. In 2016 the event took place during the months of September-October when an estimated additional 3,656 volunteers removed an estimated 211.2 tonnes of rubbish from 96 sites across northern Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. State by state volunteers have so far achieved: NT: 71 sites, approximately 4,708 volunteers, estimated 156.2 tonnes of rubbish removed. QLD: 286 sites, approximately 12,374 volunteers, an estimated 629.2 tonnes of rubbish removed. WA: 79 sites, approximately 3,399 volunteers, estimated 173.8 tonnes of rubbish removed. Congratulations to all of our most northern volunteers who took to their streets, parks, beaches bushland and waterways during 2016 to remove accumulating rubbish. A special thank you to the Councils who worked with us in supporting all of their efforts.
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2016 Sponsors
and
Supporters
Major Partner : Shop-A-Docket
Founding Partner: McDonald’s
Corporate Partner: Cleanaway
Partner: Australian Government Landcare Programme
Suppliers: Australia Post Look Print [signage] Becton Dickinson [sharps containers] Storage King
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Clean Up Australia Limited ABN: 93 003 884 991 193 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Tel: + 61 2 8197 3400 Web: www.cleanup.org.au