Clean Up Australia founder and chairman Ian Kiernan has called for WA to adopt a refund scheme on drink bottles after the items topped a list of rubbish collected in the State.
The 2011 Clean Up Australia Rubbish Report found the most common item found in WA was glass drink bottles followed by plastic bottles, cigarette butts and aluminium cans. Cigarette butts topped the list nationally.
The most litter was found at beaches and coastal areas, followed by shops and malls, public bush and schools.
Environment Minister Bill Marmion said WA did not fare well in the national litter index, recording the second greatest amount of litter in the country by volume behind NSW.
WA was the third worst performer in the number of individual pieces of litter, with 75 articles of rubbish per 1000sqm.
Mr Kiernan urged the Government to put deposit legislation in place, saying 55 per cent of rubbish collected was drink-related last year, compared with 23 per cent in 2010.
He said the return or recycling rate for drink containers across the country was 35 per cent, but in South Australia, which has a refund scheme, it was between 80 and 90 per cent.
Mr Marmion said he would discuss a national refund scheme with the ministerial council in the middle of the year.
“My preferred approach would be, if we were going to adopt a scheme like South Australia, that we adopt a uniform system right across Australia,” he said.
Clean Up Australia Day is March 4, Business Clean Up Day is February 28 and Schools Clean Up Day is March 2.
