Port Macquarie-Hastings Council

What you didn't know about litter...

94% of people believe littering is a problem.
More than 50% of people say they never litter at all, however, 8% say they litter at least once per week.
The most common time of day to use a bin is between 11am and 2pm.
Littering is the most widespread at about 4pm.
Highways, industrial areas and parks are the most likely places to find litter.
The single most common litter item in Australia is the cigarette butt, which can remain in the environment for up to five years.
Orange and banana peel takes up to two years to break down.
Plastic bags take between 20 and 1,000 years to break down.
Glass bottles take one million years to break down.
A lack of bins is not a major factor in littering-most litter occurs within five metres of a bin.

Over 32 billion cigarette butts are discarded in Australia each year. If placed end-to-end they would extend 640,000 kilometres and circle the planet 16 times.
Over 9 million butts are thrown away in NSW each year. If laid end-to-end they would span a distance of 180,000 kilometres. That's four and a half times around the planet.
If all the butts in NSW went to landfill this would be approximately 13,000 metres cubed of solid waste.
Cigarette smoke contains up to 4,000 chemicals.
An estimated 100,000 tonnes of polluted air is exhaled by smokers in NSW each year.
Cigarette butts take up to five years to break down.

$60 for littering with small items, such as confectionary wrappers, cigarette packets, bus tickets or stubbed-out cigarettes.
$200 for a lit cigarette.
$200 for littering any item from a vehicle and for general littering ($400 for corporations).
$375 for aggravated littering, for example, the littering of a lit cigarette, a syringe or a broken glass bottle that could be dangerous or harmful ($700 for corporations).