Litter composition by volume

Most-littered items

The figure below shows the litter item types recorded by the KLIS in 2020–21, by volume.

Other food package, water bottles (under 1 litre) and flavoured water/soft drink bottles are the top three most-littered item types, accounting for nearly 30% all litter.

The top 10 item types account for 54% of all litter by volume.

 

Composition of NSW litter by item type (by volume), 2020–21

Litter by category

The figure below shows the litter categories recorded by the KLIS in 2020–21, by volume.

The CDS beverage containers and takeaway and beverage categories account for nearly 70% of all litter items by volume.

Litter by material

The figure below shows the material composition of the litter recorded by the KLIS in 2020–21, by volume.

Over 58% of the litter was plastic. The next-largest categories were glass and metal (12% each).