The Victorian Litter Report
The Victorian Litter Report (VLR) is the primary litter measurement tool for Victoria and measures progress on achieving the Towards Zero Waste litter target. The VLR, using the Clean Communities Assessment Tool (CCAT), was developed by social psychologists Community Change. The survey was piloted in 2003 as the Victorian Littering Monitoring Protocol to provide benchmark data and was repeated in 2005 and 2007 as the Victorian Litter Report (VLR).
The introduction of this new methodology represented a major shift in litter measurement for Victoria as previously litter counts had been conducted. Litter counts only provide information about the number of pieces of litter at a site and do not provide information about the physical characteristics of the litter, how litter has arrived at the site or the effectiveness of litter prevention programs.
The CCAT or VLR, provides a systematic assessment of those public place characteristics influencing littering behaviour, as well as indicators of disposal behaviour and litter on the ground. Behavioural data avoids reliance on measures based on the social desirability associated with self-report surveys, where there is a frequent mismatch between what people say they do with what they actually do. It also provides a rating of binning, a positive behaviour, and littering, a negative behaviour. The VLR comprises the following measures:
- A litter count which provides the number of littered items in 48m2
- The context which includes the dimensions of sense of community, feeling of safety, graffiti, commercial and domestic dumping and the overall cleanliness of the location
- Facilities rates the infrastructure such as furniture, landscaping, open space, entrance and boundary markers according to their condition, cleanliness (old and new litter) and maintenance. It also rates the BINfrastructure (litter, recycling and butt bins) on number, presentation, position, performance and cleanliness
- Community attitudes and perceptions - using community surveys, adequacy of disposal facilities, attitudes towards the place itself and location specific issues are rated
- Behaviour ratings for littering, bin disposal, and where installed, the use of recycle bins
The benchmarking of locations aims to contribute to long-term reduction in littering by providing a valid indicator of litter accumulations points as well as locations known to stay 'clean' most of the time by providing:
- A public record of littering and bin use actions as well as records of the type of litter found in a sample of selected locations
- The start of time series data to help identify trends in factors influencing littering actions in selected locations using comparable assessments in the future
- A method to identify priority target areas for interventions in the litter prevention strategy taking into account unique characteristics of locations
Top | Last updated 19/12/2008
