What you can do

Start the interactive journey

Rubbish is dropped or left on the ground.

Tap to find out how long it takes

for each item to break apart

Coffee cups
Tossed in a second
30 years to break apart

Disposable cups appear to be made of paper, but the majority have a thin plastic lining, meaning they will never decompose.³⁵

Beverage container
Tossed in a second
400 years to break apart

One plastic bottle can break up over time into 10,000 pieces of microplastic. Glass bottles will never break down. They will stay in the environment for a million years if not recycled.³⁶

Cigarette butts
Tossed in a second
10 years to break apart

Cigarette filters are made from a plastic called cellulose acetate. When tossed into the environment, they dump not only that plastic, but also the nicotine and heavy metals.³⁴

Plastic bags
Tossed in a second
500 years to break apart

Australian’s use up to 10 million plastic bags every day, with around 150 million ending up in our oceans and waterways. Over 100,000 marine animals and 1,000,000 sea birds lose their life to plastic each year globally.³⁷

Take away containers
Tossed in a second
500 years to break apart

Take away food packaging makes up over 30% of litter items in NSW. Even biodegradable packaging can take hundreds and thousands of years to break apart.³⁹

Seagull pecking at takeaway container on beach

Confectionery wrappers
Tossed in a second
50 years to break apart

Wrappers are made of a mix of materials like plastics and aluminium, which will never break down and release toxins into the environment.³⁸

Explore other environments:

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Plastic waste accumulates in five subtropical 'garbage patches' in the open ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest, and is formed as a result of ocean circulation driven by the changing wind fields around the Earth's rotation.⁶⁸

1.8 TRILLION pieces of plastic ⁶⁹ That’s 250 pieces for every human being 80 THOUSAND TONNES That’s about 1,000 space shuttles

And it’s TWICE THE SIZE of NSW and growing

And there are 4 others…

See how litter moves through Sydney Harbour

In March 2017, the EPA tossed 40 GPS-tracked plastic bottles into harbours, rivers and lakes across NSW to demonstrate how litter travels once it reaches our waterways. This project, generated under the EPA’s flagship litter prevention program, Hey Tosser!, showed the community what happens to litter that is tossed.

Find out more

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Where rubbish goes

Where will your litter go?

Coffee cups
Tossed in a second
30 years to break apart

Beverage container
Tossed in a second
400 years to break apart

Cigarette butts
Tossed in a second
10 years to break apart

Plastic bags
Tossed in a second
500 years to break apart

Take away containers
Tossed in a second
500 years to break apart