How many people today grab a takeaway coffee cup from the local cafe to drink on the go? We don’t know, but the number must be enormous.. Most every one of the above have a plastic top that will last 100s of years. Some cafes still use plastic cups that last a similar time. Is 10 minutes of coffee worth 100s of years of trash?
These items can be seen littering our gutters and on our streets all over the place. If they were all cardboard, they would still be littered, but they would, at least, be gone in a short time.
They do not need to be made of plastic.
On the way home from the gym last week, a distance of about 1 km (1/2 mile), I counted the items of plastic litter on the curb as I walked. In that short distance I counted 63 pieces of plastic litter. Plastic drink bottles, bottle tops, candy wrappers, plastic film, polystyrene fragments etc. That seemed to be a lot to me. I guess it is a generational thing. Our parents would have been horrified to see that amount, whereas it seems to go unnoticed by our youth of today. In another 20 years how many pieces will there be on this stretch, -- 200? What will today’s youth think of that new amount then when they are older? Will their children be so readily accepting of a higher amount of litter? 
Plastics and cigarette butts still dominate litter stats – Australia
Posted on February 6, 2026 by DrRossH in General
Cigarette butts, also made of plastic, are now the most littered individual item, representing 23.6 per cent of all counted litter.
Source: Plastics and cigarette butts still dominate litter stats – Inside Waste
The findings of the Clean Up Australia Litter Report FY25 have been released, revealing that plastics continue to be the number one litter type found in Australia’s streets, parks, bushlands and waterways, representing 80.8 per cent of all counted litter. Cigarette butts, also made of plastic, are now the most littered individual item, representing 23.6 per cent of all counted litter.
Soft plastics remain a significant problem, representing 30.5 per cent of all litter categories. Packaging continues to be a persistent challenge, representing 59.5 per cent of all reported litter during the year. Of the individual items, cigarette butts have surged to claim the top position, overtaking soft plastics wrappers (18.6 per cent), followed by plastic bags (8.7 per cent).
Wht is discusting is that only 10% of Australians smoke. yet that 10% make 23.6% of the total of the littered items. This means that that smokers are littering 2.3 times as much as the average person!
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