Keep Australia Beautiful capped off its awareness week last week with the news that we’re succeeding in reducing litter.
National Litter Index (NLI) shows collaborative efforts to reduce litter are working. The occurrence of litter nationally is continuing an overall downward trend, with Victoria leading the way.
Australian Packaging Covenant chief executive officer, Stan Moore, said it was pleasing to see litter improvements nationally. "The continuing decrease in litter is the result of collaborative actions between government, industry and community groups, such as the Australian Packaging Covenant, to address concerns about litter".
The national average number of 51 items per 1,000m2 is down from 56 items last year, whilst the national average estimated volume of 5.97 litres per 1,000m2, down from 6.13 litres in previous year.
Victoria's count was well below the national count, at 28 items per 1,000m2.
"The Keep Australia Beautiful National Litter Index (KAB NLI) is an important component of a best practice approach that provides regular measurement of progress towards the goal of reducing litter. Victoria's leading result is due to their holistic approach to litter reduction encompassing education, packaging design, infrastructure and enforcement.
"While the overall results are encouraging, continuing collaboration between community groups, government and industry is required to deliver even better litter outcomes", Moore added.
Since the start of the NLI 9 years ago, an overall 27% reduction in items and 33% reduction by volume in the national average have been achieved.
The NLI is Australia's only national annual quantitative measure of what litter occurs where and in what volume, based on counts taken twice a year at 983 sites across Australia. The annual report allows each state and territory to be compared against the national average.
The research is funded by all state and territory governments and the Australian Packaging Covenant.
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