1. WSROC secured NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Stage 1 regional litter grant funding to develop the Regional Litter Plan to reduce litter in the region;
   
   
2. WSROC developed the Regional Litter Plan 2016-21 in consultation with a working group of council officers from participating councils;
   
   
3. The process uncovered that (collectively):
   
   • Western Sydney councils spend over $14 million (average of $26.61 per household) annually to manage litter; 
   • Western Sydney councils have implemented over $550,000 in litter prevention projects using grant funding from the NSW EPA Waste Less Recycle More initiative;
     
     
4. The Regional Litter Plan identified the most prevalent types of litter were cigarette butts and food and drink packaging and litter hotspots were in CBD locations, recreational parks and roadsides;
   
   
5. As a region, the plan proposes projects to tackle these issues over five years, and using a multi-pronged approach involving: education; infrastructure; regulation and enforcement, and; monitoring and evaluation; and
   
   
6. This Regional Litter Plan is supported by the 2016-2017 Western Sydney Litter Regional Implementation Plan (L-RIP), which was awarded $139,828 in funding from the NSW EPA to tackle roadside litter in first year of the Regional Litter Plan.
   
   

The NSW Premier recently announced a new State Priority to reduce the volume of litter by 40% by 2020.

Litter reduction is a key theme in the Regional Waste Strategy and WSROC and Western Sydney councils are committed to reducing litter.

Western Sydney Regional Litter Plan 2016 – 2021 (PDF  1.02mb)

Related articles:
West Throwing Away $14 Million Each Year