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Litter Report

ANNUAL LITTER REPORT

Clean Up Australia’s annual Litter Report is a snapshot of litter removed by volunteers during a financial year. Since 1991, the Litter Report has proven to be an invaluable resource in identifying trends in the types and spread of litter throughout Australia. It continues to demonstrate the importance of refusing, reducing, re-using and recycling rubbish.

Clean Up Australia celebrated 35 years in FY25, a milestone in which we recognised the achievements of our community of incredible volunteers who each year, don their gloves and head outside to pick up litter. In FY25 over 1 million volunteers around the country participated in an event. Clean Up Australia Day 2025 was our largest Clean Up ever, with over 800,000 volunteers taking part during the campaign period.

Every year, a proportion of these dedicated volunteers diligently count, and log litter found at their Clean Up events. Data gathered from their End of Clean Up Reports feeds into our annual Litter Report, which since 1991 has been identifying trends in types and materials of litter found throughout Australia.

READ REPORT HERE

KEY FINDINGS

Clean Up Australia’s Litter Report FY25 reveals that plastics continue to be the dominant litter type found in our streets and natural areas, representing 80.8% of all counted litter. The figure highlights the immense challenge we are facing with plastic waste, which manages to find its way into the Australian marine and land environment at the rate of 250 kilograms every minute.

The Litter Report also highlights the number one collected litter item at Clean Up events this year – cigarette butts, representing 23.6% of all counted litter. Cigarette butts are made of a plastic called cellulose acetate. When littered in the environment, they shed microfibres, leach toxic waste and take up to 30 years to decompose.