The Waverley Council area estimated resident population for 2020 is 74,276, with a population density of 8,034 persons/km². In 2016, 38.5% of people in the Waverley Council area were born overseas.

Litter and illegal dumping were two of the four environmental issues that concern residents the most according to a 2015 Waverley Council Community Sustainability Survey.

Waverley Council aims to transition toward a zero-waste community. The Council’s objective is to actively reduce the amount of waste generated; keeping the streets, beaches and parks clean and free of litter, rubbish and pollution; and best practice in waste management to increase recycling and recovery.

The Council has delivered actions within the Sustainable Waste Strategy 2015-2020 to reduce waste, increase recycling and reduce litter on the beaches and streets in Waverley Local Government Area.

Litter prevention was addressed by a number of key focus areas in the Sustainable Waste Strategy 2015-2020:

The target for Focus Area 1: Reduce Waste Generation was ‘zero increase in waste generation from 2004 levels’. Achieving this target involves:

• encourage and enable the community via targeted education and engagement programs to reduce waste generation and increase recycling capabilities
• design targeted programs and explore partnerships with the community to reduce waste generation and promote reuse initiatives
• continue to support Extended Producer Responsibility schemes that help reduce waste and increase opportunities for resource recovery
• research new technology that would support initiatives for waste reduction.

Under Focus Area 5: Clean and Attractive Waverley, the Council targets:

• reduced incidence of littering and dumping
• increased reuse/recycling of household clean-up items; and
• provide a waste service that is effective and simple.

‘Developing and delivering residential education and engagement programs to reduce waste generation and litter’ is a high priority.

The Council supports the South Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) Regional Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy (2014-2021).

Projects

The Council has undertaken multiple litter prevention projects, including:

• Council has installed 80 cigarette butt disposal containers, called Enviropoles, to encourage responsible disposal. Butts are recycled into park benches and other plastic infrastructure by Terracycle
• the Return and Earn Reverse Vending Machine launched at Bondi Beach in June 2018 and since then more than 5 million containers have been returned for recycling
• Council has installed 42 high-capacity solar compacting waste and recycling bins in high traffic areas. These ‘smart’ bins use solar power to squash waste and recycling, allowing them to hold up to five times the amount of waste as a normal bin, and they use Wi-Fi to communicate when the bin is full and ready for collection
• 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
• smoking has been banned on beaches since 2004. Rangers patrol the beaches to provide this message to the community and issue fines when necessary
• Council engages with businesses to support waste reduction, litter reduction and the use of more sustainable takeaway materials
• 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 on the beach per 48 square metres reduced to 10 in 2019 from 27 in 200
• each summer, Council implements a litter prevention program to target top litter items identified through the annual beach audits. Additional litter reduction programs are undertaken as required
• every summer, Council provides an anti- litter campaign at Bondi Beach that includes an intensive litter audit, additional litter removal events, and a targeted community engagement campaign.

In 2016, Waverley Council launched ‘Bondi Unwrapped’, a multidisciplinary education and engagement program working to prevent take-away packaging litter in Bondi. The program was part funded by the NSW EPA and supported the installation of Solar Bins as well as working with the community and businesses to prevent litter at the source, patrol litter hotspots and maintain the cleanliness of those areas. 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 offence through the Hey Tosser campaign.

The Council has recently received the NSW EPA Council Litter Prevention Round 6 Grant for its Better BYO Project which aims to encourage and support local food businesses to take up reusable alternatives to single use takeaway packaging. Council will also partner local community groups to jointly run a high profile clean up event highlighting the connection between litter and consumption habits and encouraging participants to pledge to making more sustainable food and drink packaging choices.