SOURCES OF RUBBISH

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 twelfth consecutive year. Amongst the most frequently found plastic items were chips and confectionery bags, bottle caps & lids, PET bottles and supermarket / retail plastic bags.

This plastic percentage (33.7%) has remained consistent with 2005 (34%) and since 1991, Plastics have made up between 26.8 and 41.4% of all rubbish collected on Clean Up Australia Day.

Miscellaneous rubbish was the second most common type of rubbish collected. In 2006, miscellaneous rubbish represented 16.4% of all rubbish removed - down from 19% in 2005 and representing 17% in 2004. Cigarette butts made up the majority of miscellaneous rubbish accounting for 87.7% of all miscellaneous rubbish and 14.4% of all rubbish removed.

Paper/cardboard was the third most common type of rubbish found (15.9%), followed by metal (13.2%), glass (11.7%) polystyrene (5.2%) wood (2.1%) and rubber (1.8%).

Historical Comparison

The Major Sources of Rubbish over time show an interesting picture. Sixteen years of data from sites surveyed show that plastics have long been the dominant rubbish item collected from surveyed sites. Paper, Metal and Miscellaneous items have also made up a large proportion of the rubbish collected from surveyed sites on Clean Up Australia Day.

Plastic

Plastic was once again the most common type of rubbish found on Clean Up Australia Day, and the amount of plastic items found increased from last year. In 2006 plastic items accounted for 33.7% of all rubbish found, compared with 32% in 2005.

Once again chips and confectionery bags were the most common types of plastic rubbish found, accounting for 18.6% of all the plastic items surveyed.

Bottle caps / lids were the second most common item at 11.9%, representing a consistent result with 2005 figures (11%) though revealed an elevated ranking from third to second in 2006. PET bottles were ranked third (10%) followed by supermarket/retail bags (7.4%) and straws (7%).

School grounds had the highest number of plastic items found, with an average of 201 items per site. Shops / Malls and 'other' sites were equal second with an average of 143 rubbish items per site. Rivers / Creeks were third with an average of 137 rubbish items per site.

Notably, the average number of plastic items found at most sites has decreased. For example, this year an average of 123 plastic items were found at rivers/creeks, compared to 140 in 2005 and 467 items in 2004.

Polystyrene

Polystyrene accounted for 5.2% of all rubbish found - little change from 2005.

Polystyrene pieces accounted for 43.7% of this total - an 11.7% increase from last year, though similar to the 2004 figure of 43%. This year fast food containers accounted for 23% of polystyrene rubbish, a 5% decrease from last year. Cups and plates also decreased from last year to account for 18.2% of all polystyrene pieces.

Shops and malls had the highest average number of polystyrene pieces found again this year, accounting for an average of 31 items. Also again, rivers and creeks were in second place with an average of 28 items found at each site.

Glass

Glass accounted for 11.7% of all rubbish surveyed in 2006 - a slight decrease from 2005 when it accounted for 14% of all rubbish surveyed.

Glass pieces made up the largest proportion of glass items at 41.9% - a 3.1% increase from 2004. Alcoholic beverage bottles accounted for 37.9% of glass pieces, a 2.1% decrease from last year, followed by soft drink bottles (11.6%), fruit juice bottles (4.6%), food jars (2.36%) and other (1.2%).

Shops and Malls had the highest number of glass items, with an average of 70 items per site. This was followed closely by last year's number one site type, public bushland (67 items per site). This is significantly less than last year's average of 136 items per public bushland site.

Rubber

As in previous years, rubber has remained the smallest source of rubbish accounting for 1.8% of total rubbish surveyed (an increase of 0.8%). In 2006, rubber gloves were the number one rubbish item found (increasing by 28.1%), overtaking thongs / shoes which this year accounted for just 16.7% of rubber rubbish (down 6.3%). Tyres were the second most frequent rubber item found at 20.4%. Condoms accounted for 7.8% of rubbish found (down 5.2%) and 'other' category accounted for 5.1%.

Shops / Malls, School Grounds and River / Creeks were the top three site types containing rubber rubbish. All of these site categories showed a high average number of rubber items per site (12, 11 & 10 respectively) compared with the highest average number last year being 6 (Beach / Coastal). Beach coastal areas decreased significantly in ranking yet remained consistent at an average of 7 items per site.

Paper & Cardboard

Paper and cardboard accounted for 15.9% of the total rubbish surveyed in 2006, representing a slight 0.9% increase from 2005.

Small paper pieces again were the most common type of paper/cardboard rubbish found, accounting for 33.1% - a 5.1% increase from 2005.

Following small paper pieces was fast food packaging (11.6%), cigarette packs (9.6%), newspapers/books & magazines (8.2%), bags (7.4%), napkins/tissues (6.2%) and drink cartons (5.4%).

Shops/malls had the highest average amount of paper rubbish, with an average of 158 items per surveyed site. This is only slightly less than the average items in 2005 (179). School Grounds were the next site type to be frequented by paper rubbish with an average of 95 items per site. This is followed by Parks / Waterfronts (61), Roadways (60) and Public Bushland (58).

Metal and Aluminium

Metal and aluminium represented 13.2% of all the rubbish surveyed on Clean Up Australia Day. This is a slight increase of 1.2% from 2005.

Alcoholic beverage and soft drink cans were again the most commonly found metal items, accounting for 21% and 22% of respectively of all metal rubbish found. This reflected an increase of 4.2% and 2.6% respectively from 2005 figures.

The next most common metal items in 2005 were foil/confectionery wrappers (15.9%) and bottle caps (15.6%).

The highest average number of metal items (160) was found at shops/malls. Outdoor Transport sites ranked second with an average of 73 metal items per site, followed by public bushland with an average of 65 items.

Wood

Wood accounted for 2.1% of total rubbish surveyed on Clean Up Australia Day. As has been the case in previous years, ice cream sticks made up the majority of wood items (46%), followed by construction material (20.7%), wood pieces (17.5%), 'other' (8.1%) and bottle corks (7.6%).

Wood items were most commonly found at shops / malls, with an average of 16 items per site. This number is higher than previous averages for this category. Public Bushland sites last year ranked the highest at 11 items per site.

Miscellaneous Items

Miscellaneous items were the second largest source of rubbish in 2005 - representing 16.4% of the total rubbish surveyed. This is on track with last year when miscellaneous rubbish accounted for 17% of total rubbish surveyed.

Shops / Malls had the highest number of miscellaneous items which can be explained by the fact that cigarette butts are included in this category and a small sample size, with substantial quantities of cigarette butts at these sites reflect a high average.

This year cigarette butts accounted for 87.7% of items in the miscellaneous category. They were ranked the number one item in the Top Ten – see Top Ten information.