AUSTRALIA'S roads are being rubbished and our highways are becoming dumping grounds, according to the latest nation-wide litter research by Keep Australia Beautiful.
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Scores of Australians packed their cars up and hit the highways this Easter long weekend.
Of the 676,108 items of rubbish collected leading up to the weekend, 32 per cent was collected from our highways.
This trend was recorded right across the country, with highways the top litter spot in every state except Victoria.
For some absurd reason, when people are travelling in their vehicles they don’t have much respect for keeping our country beautiful.
It’s really quite simple. All you need to do is carry a container in the car for rubbish and put it all in the bin when you arrive at your destination.
Rubbish thrown out of cars can become a lethal object for other road users, plus litter becomes an eyesore on the highways. It’s bad for the local wildlife, and it means someone else has to go and pick it up.
You may have a licence to drive, but you don’t have a licence to litter.
Surprisingly, car parks are the number one litter hot spot for Victoria.
It’s usually only a few metres to the nearest bin but if you can’t find one, just take your rubbish with you instead of dumping it on the ground.
Teams of rubbish counters scour Australia throughout November recording litter
they collect, which then becomes the interim results of the annual National Litter Index.
Once again, cigarette butts were the number one offender across all locations.
With 34,077 collected so far, cigarette butts make up 45 per cent of the total amount of rubbish.
Smokers just aren’t getting the message to not throw cigarette butts on the ground.
But with the interim results out, the good news is that there is still time to make amends before the next litter collection starts in May.
These results are the perfect reminder to not be a litterbug, but they also show us we have room for improvement before the comprehensive National Litter Index report is compiled.
The final results from the annual National Litter Index will be released later this year.
Let’s all do our bit to keep Australia beautiful.
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