00:00The biggest contributor, the major problem according to Clean Up Australia in terms of litter categories is non-food packaging.
00:09So this includes all the stuff that your online orders come in.
00:13The boxes that they come in, the plastic packaging that goes inside that box and around the item,
00:18the foam that goes around that plastic packaging, all the mountains of things that come with your order.
00:24Clean Up Australia says this makes up around 30% of the stuff that they find during their clean-up runs and around 60% of reported litter.
00:34Now this is a major problem for Clean Up Australia, it's one of their major focuses in 2026.
00:39They're keen on reducing this by making manufacturers responsible for the packaging they produce
00:46and they want governments to reward those who do it well and penalise those who don't do it so well.
00:53Another perhaps surprising contributor to waste in this report is coffee cups.
00:58Now a few years ago we felt like we were making some progress in this space with everyone encouraged to bring along their reusable mug.
01:05But apparently that's lost quite a bit of momentum during the pandemic and is now on the upward trend.
01:12Overall the major contributor to waste is plastic.
01:16Plastic makes up 80% of what Clean Up Australia crews find during their clean-up days.
01:22Now unfortunately this is also going up.
01:25Despite all the efforts we've made to reduce plastic bag use,
01:29plastic bags and single-use plastics still make up the number two and three most commonly found item.
01:36The number one most commonly found item, cigarette butts, also have plastic in them.
01:41And we know how detrimental plastic can be in the environment.
01:45Unfortunately overall Australia's plastic use is increasing.
01:49It's gone up by 122% between the year 2000 and the year 2024.
01:56So still a lot of work to do in reducing our overall reliance on plastic.
02:00.
Comments