A litter can be as small as a sweet wrapper or as large as a bag of rubbish, meaning lots of scattered items. The legislation also clarifies explicitly that discarded gum products, cigarette ends, and matches are types of litter.
The offence of leaving litter applies when a person throws down, drops or otherwise deposits any litter in any place in the open air in the area of a principal litter authority to which the public has access with or without payment and leaves it. Litter is associated with many social, environmental, and economic issues. It can also be a source of safety hazards for road users. The issue of litter is a complex matter caused by various reasons which do not have a single solution. Removal methods focus on collecting the existing litter, which can be very effective in the short-term but are usually costly.