Littering is the discarding of material either deliberately or by accident, in a way that makes the location more disorderly or has detrimental impacts on the use of that location. Put simply, litter is rubbish in the wrong place.
Littering is an offence and people who litter will be fined. For further information the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has a comprehensive website about littering, including the associated laws and regulations:
According to the EPA, over 25,000 tonnes of litter is tossed in NSW each year. The single most common litter item in Australia is the cigarette butt. Cigarette butts make up half of the litter in NSW. There are laws which restrict where people can smoke which includes in certain public places, parks and near certain shop entrances in the main street.
Other common litter includes small pieces of paper, chip and confectionery wrappers, fast-food packaging, bottle caps, glass pieces, glass alcohol bottles, plastic straws and soft drink bottles (both plastic and metal).
Littering from Vehicles
Under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 it is an offence to deposit litter from a vehicle.
Penalties for this offence can be up to $2,200. Council officers carry out patrols throughout the local government area, including outside of normal business hours, and issue on-the-spot penalty notices of up to $250 for private vehicles and $500 for vehicles owned by corporations where littering is observed.
More serious offences such as littering cigarette butts from vehicles during a total fire ban period can attract even higher penalty notice amounts.
Members of the public that witness litter deposited from a vehicle can report their observations to the EPA.
To file a report, please do so via the Report to NSW EPA website.