By Ben Kneppers
I don’t get it. People come from all parts of the world (myself included) to come and enjoy the many beautiful beaches Australia has to offer. I think anyone that comes for a visit would agree how truly priceless these places are. Yet, again and again, some people are not thinking twice about leaving it littered with their rubbish.
Every day in Australia, an estimated 8 million items of litter become marine debris, which is significantly affecting the state of our beaches and coastlines (1).
These items lead to an accumulation of pollution that can severely disrupt marine ecosystems, not to mention cause danger to human health and safety. An important point to note is that the majority of litter becomes marine debris from indirect sources, such as inland gutters, drains and waterways that collect the litter and eventually bring it out to sea. So even if you are littering away from the beach, it still can ultimately cause an impact on our marine ecosystems as an end result. Just to add to the case, the finances for council litter management cost on average $80,000 a year, and nearly all of the top ten litter items are capable of being recycled through our curbside recycling services (1).
So why are people littering? Behavioral scientists have found a variety of reasons; some people consider certain items to be acceptable to litter, they assume someone else will pick it up, lack of access to litter bins or just plain laziness. You can read more about this issue in this very well written report produced by the Beverage Industry Environment Council (BIEC): Understanding Littering Behavior in Australia.
The most common piece of litter (by far) is cigarette butts, which accounts for roughly half of the litter in Australia. It seems that cigarette butts fall under the first of the listed reasons for littering where I have found time and time again people to deem cigarette butts as an acceptable item to discard onto the ground, but look at these items in another perspective: If all the cigarette butts that were discarded in Australia last year were collected and placed end to end, they would span over 640,000 km- capable of circling the planet 16 times! (1)
I still remember the lesson I learned on my first overnight hiking trip, leave the place you stayed the same or better than the way you found it. Every time you pick a piece of litter up you are setting a positive example and giving back to the places that we appreciate so much. Whenever I come in from a surf or a run on the beach I try to pick up a few pieces of litter to give back in a little way. If you want to give back in an even bigger way, well, you’re in luck because Australia has numerous programs working on this cause. Please find below a list of just a few campaigns going on in Australia to fight littering:
- - Keep Australia Beautiful: Provide education and campaigns on litter prevention and removal.
- - Butt Free Australia: Campaign to eliminate cigarette butt littering in Australia
- - Love Your Beach!: Surfrider Australia campaign which plans local cleanups within Australian beach communities.
References:
- Module 7: Litter Management, Greening Australia Victoria, last viewed 16 October 2011, http://home.vicnet.net.au/~schools/pdfs/modules/s4fmod7.pdf.
