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Keeping Waverley beautiful

If you see someone littering from their vehicle, you can report them online to the EPA. Fines for littering range from range from $250 for individuals to $500 for corporations.

How Waverley Council manages litter

Waverley Council welcomes up to 80,000 visitors a day during the summer months. Many teams within Council work hard to keep our beaches and public spaces clean and clear of rubbish and litter.

• Council's public place cleaning team picks up rubbish, clean bins, removes graffiti, sweeps the sand and cleans public toilets at the beaches and along the surrounding streets. Council’s beach rake operates every evening over summer to remove litter.
• Waverley Council has installed 80 cigarette butt disposal containers, called Enviropoles, to encourage responsible disposal. Butts are recycled into park benches and other items.
• Smoking has been banned on our beaches since 2004. Rangers patrol the beaches to provide this message to the community and issue fines when necessary.
• Council has installed 42 high capacity solar compacting waste and recycling bins in high traffic areas.
• Council collaborates with local community groups to deliver waste and litter avoidance initiatives in our area, including beach clean ups, Plastic Free July and events such as Summerama.
• Council engages with businesses to support waste reduction, litter reduction and the use of more sustainable takeaway materials. Learn more about how to become a more sustainable business here.
• Each summer, Council implements a litter prevention program to target top litter items identified through our annual beach audits. Additional litter reduction programs are undertaken as required.
• Council undertakes annual litter audits at Bondi, Bronte and Tamarama beaches. There has been a trend of litter reduction over the past 12-years at Bondi Beach. The average litter count on the beach per 48 square metres reduced to 10 in 2019 from 27 in 2007.

Council thanks the committed staff, individuals and community groups who work together to keep our neighbourhoods clean.

How you can help reduce litter

Join or host your own beach clean up with Clean Up Australia

By registering with Clean Up Australia, you will get access to a free kit with bags and safety equipment to enable you to run  a clean up safely. Once you have decided on a date for your clean-up you, contact environment@waverley.nsw.gov.au so that council staff can collect the bagged rubbish collected by your group.

Join a local volunteer group

Problems are rarely solved alone. Connect with our community of connected, passionate volunteers through the Collaboration for Impact network. Many of the groups work individually and collectively to reduce litter and pollution.

Remember to BYO when on the go

Bringing your own bag, cup, container and utensils when purchasing food for takeaway or having a picnic helps to reduce litter. There is no legislation prohibiting the use of BYO cups and containers during COVID-19 or otherwise. You can ask your favourite business to accept your clean reusable containers, although this remains at their discretion to do so.

Report littering from vehicles

If you see someone littering from their vehicle, you can report them online to the EPA. Fines for littering range from range from $250 for individuals to $500 for corporations.

Case study - Bondi Unwrapped

Bondi Unwrapped is a litter prevention program implemented in the summer of 2016/17 that included aspects education and awareness, infrastructure, enforcement, and evaluation and monitoring. Key elements of the program:

• Council conducted packaging audits at 40 business to assist with advice for reducing packaging both internally and for take-away items. Top tips are found here.
• Takeaway customers were surveyed face-to-face during peak commute times and beach visiting times to gauge the level of awareness of packaging as litter, discuss alternatives to take-away packaging and that it is an offence to litter.
• New bin infrastructure was installed with bin wraps using the EPA’s Hey Tosser messaging and solar compacting bins were installed at Bondi Beach and Bondi Junction.
• Rangers undertook 10 education blitzes.
• A Public Cleansing program was implemented for litter hotspots.
• The Council Events and Vendor Policy was reviewed with internal stakeholders and modified to include sustainable packaging components.

The program resulted in an overall 50% reduction in take-away packaging and won the Keep NSW Beautiful Hey Tosser Litter Award for 2017.

• Cigarette butts – 51% reduction in litter items observed, 51% reduction by volume.
• Takeaway Packaging – 50% reduction in total litter items, 50% reduction by volume.
• Overflowing bins – 48% reduction in reports of overflowing bins.
• Awareness - In the final litter check, all survey respondents spoken to were aware of littering as an offense through the Hey Tosser campaign.