Commercial services

Commercial services

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Waste in the commercial services sector may include:

• people discarding cigarette butts
• shoppers discarding food wrappers, cans and bottles
• material falling from commercial vehicles
• unsecured/overflowing bins
• businesses dumping waste
• overflowing skip bins
• scavenging animals
• people discarding food
• disposing of chemicals into drains and waterways.

Commercial services are typically areas where high littering occurs. Population density is a significant factor affecting the amount of waste pollution[1].

A project called ‘Drain Buddies*’ is investigating the movement of litter reaching suburban drains from largely commercial areas. Initially, 27 litter traps were installed and monitored in three local government areas within the Fitzroy Catchment Area. Over 12 months, traps collected over 27,000 pieces of litter, removing 721kg of pollutants before they could reach the Great Barrier Reef. The litter included nearly 14,000 cigarette butts, which remain the number one littered item in Queensland.

Commercial services waste may move through the environment via four pathways:

Air

Water

Mechanical

Biological

*Initiated as part of the Local Action Community Reef Protection Grant, funded by a partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, delivered by Fitzroy Basin Association Inc.

References

1. ^ Glanville, K & Chang, HC (2015), 'Mapping illegal domestic waste disposal potential to support waste management efforts in Queensland.', International Journal of Geographical Information Science. [online] Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2015.1008002.

Last updated: 10 May 2021