• Litter Education
• Causes of littering
• Who Litters?
• Types of Litter
• Littering Behaviour
• Barriers to the disposal of litter
• Cultural and Social Attitudes

• Infrastructure Issues
• Social and Cultural Attitudes
• Infrastructure
• Rubbish Attracts Rubbish
• Excessive packaging
• Enforcement

Littering Education > Infrastructure Issues

Litter Education

Litter is defined under the Litter Act 1979 as:

‘…any refuse, rubbish, animal remains, glass, metal, garbage, debris, dirt, filth, rubble, ballast, stones, earth or waste matter, or any other thing of a like nature’.

Causes of littering/barriers to responsible behaviour

The first step in developing this campaign strategy was to identify the barriers to the responsible disposal of litter. If any form of sustainable behaviour is going to be adopted by the public, barriers to engaging in the activity must first be identified. These barriers can then, if possible, be removed thereby making the desired behaviour easier/more attractive (McKenzie Mohr 1999).

Extensive research has been carried out into the reasons why people litter, and to complete this section a literature review was conducted of relevant items in trade magazines and newsletters, reports by other councils/organisations both nationally and internationally, and articles in academic journals. Correspondence was also sent out to the Community Based Social Marketing network and feedback received from several members involved in litter campaigns.

The barriers identified through this literature search are described below. The literature search also uncovered information relating to other aspects of littering behaviour which will also be useful in informing the strategy, such as ‘who litters?’ This is followed by a discussion about the causes of littering that have been identified in the literature.