The supposedly pristine island of Tasmania has been named and shamed as the dirtiest state in Australia.
The just published Keep Australia Beautiful’s National Litter Index survey found Tassie had more rubbish lying around on its once beautiful beaches and recreation parks – as well as in its car parks, highways, recreation parks, industrial sites and shopping centres – than anywhere else in the nation.
The survey counted of all litter at 983 sites across Australia found, for example, that a total of 53 cigarette butts were found for every 1000 sq m at Tasmanian sites surveyed compared with the national average of 29. Plastic was little better with the national average of 12 plastic items being overshadowed by Tasmania’s 15. Squeaky clean Victoria had a relatively paltry seven plastic items per 100 sq m.
The National Litter Index found that while cigarette butts were the most frequently identified item littered across all sites in Tasmania, paper and paperboard such as takeaway food containers or utensils contributed the largest amounts of volume to the state’s litter stream. The Tasmanian litter rate for paper and paperboard food containers was typically two to three times higher than the national average.
Over on the mainland, there was little cause for celebration in the increasingly grubby Sunshine State. The survey found 15 per cent more litter in Queensland than in any other mainland state. And it said the figure would likely have been higher if the summer floods had not washed litter off the streets and into nearby stormwater drains and waterways.
Shockingly it seems the amount of litter found on Queensland’s beaches have increased 100 per cent in the past year. Wow! Those magnificent beaches tainted and tarnished by an ignorant few. Isn’t it truly appalling?
