Streets to Sea

Identify a potential catchment that is at an optimal scale; that is, large enough to present a range of opportunities to address litter flows, yet small enough so that there is capacity to intervene and achieve a measurable reduction in litter flows. Applicants should identify a potential focus catchment in order to submit their EOI but may need to explore options as part of the EOI process, or may need to revise the area selected during the Phase 2 Catchment Study.

Consider catchments where the following circumstances exist:

• There is a notable litter problem, both upstream in urban catchment areas and downstream in nearby receiving waterways:
  • The drivers to deliver a Streets to Sea initiative are likely to be stronger where the receiving waterway is a focus for user amenity, such as river that is well-used for recreation. User amenity should not be the only consideration and an initiative can also focus on the environmental protection of the waterway.
• There is information available or able to be collected including:
  • Information on litter sources, including Australian Litter Measure (ALM) data
  • Information on litter in the downstream receiving environment, such as a Key Littered Items Study (KLIS) site
  • Information on litter management activities, for example cleaning regimes, litter collected in stormwater devices, and other land uses and activities in the catchment which may be dispersing litter.
• Key land and stormwater system managers are ‘on board’ to support the management plan (whether they are other organisations or teams within your own organisation).

Avoid catchments where:

• There are major changes or unusual activity planned or underway, such as large redevelopment or construction projects, which could significantly change the sources and flows of litter
• There are conflicting priorities or insurmountable institutional barriers to working productively with a key land manager in the available timeframe. 

Partners in a Streets to Sea catchment litter management plan should include the major land and stormwater managers in the catchment. This is always likely to include local councils. The initiative should involve a multi-disciplinary approach that reflects the scope of community engagement, organisational capacity and the expertise required to deliver a catchment litter prevention initiative. It could include teams responsible for some or all of the following:

• servicing of public bins
• cleansing
• stormwater management
• stormwater quality improvement devices
• natural waterways/receiving waters
• environmental education/community engagement
• place management
• streetscape and landscape design
• environmental health and POEO compliance
• economic development
• asset registry management.

Key catchments, particularly in metropolitan Sydney, will cover more than one council area and require cooperation between councils, potentially to be supported by a formal agreement. If not led by catchment groups, Streets to Sea initiatives should appropriately engage catchment groups and/or regional organisations of councils.

In some catchments, there may be significant areas of public and private land that is subject to stormwater management for which the responsible non-council organisations need to be engaged, for example:

• stormwater systems managed by Sydney Water/Hunter Water
• areas managed by the State government (e.g. railway or main road corridors, National Parks and Wildlife Service)
• businesses managing large industrial or retail sites with privately-owned stormwater drains.

Also consider partners who can support the plan with a range of expertise, including capacity in:

• litter monitoring
• stormwater management
• the transport and fate of pollutants in the environment.

Include research partners, including government, academic or other partners.

The EPA has already engaged the Science and Insights division of the NSW Department of Environment, Energy, Climate Change and Water (DEECCW), which currently monitors litter and marine debris across the state. They will be partners in using this litter data to help develop catchment litter management plans in catchments, including where they are already working (see Step 2.2). The EPA can facilitate their early collaboration in your research and planning processes.

Identify other partners with in-depth knowledge and experience to support each of the subsequent phases of the Streets to Sea process, including understanding of catchments, catchment management plan development and on-ground implementation of works. For example, partners may play important roles in:

• data collection
• interpreting data/results of analysis, to understand litter flows
• identifying potential interventions
• testing interventions
• assessing costs, benefits and outcomes.

At the EOI stage, you should identify key land managers and seek an initial letter of support.

Complete the EOI form on SmartyGrants.

The EOI submission will need to be accompanied by the following:

• a high-level profile of the catchment, outlining:
  • the catchment area
  • land uses and key land managers
  • the litter problem – in particular, where litter is accumulating in waterways, river banks or mangrove areas
  • information available on litter sources and flows
  • information available on litter management activities
  • a preliminary assessment of catchment suitability for Streets to Sea.
• a statement of intent, outlining how knowledge gaps may be filled and a catchment approach to litter prevention may be developed
• letters of support from critical partners, and likely future partners nominated who will be engaged as part of the planning process
• proposed scope and budget for Phase 2, noting that Phase 2 should be funded within the current Stream 3 grant.

The EOI is a key step for providing an approval gateway for Phase 2. If the EOI proposal is endorsed, this will release support from the EPA to help develop the following stages, including independent technical advice and document templates. The EPA and DEECCW teams can be available to assist with surveying, collating data, quality assurance/quality control, interpretation of findings, and developing experimental plans to test interventions for potentially scaling up in Phase 4.

During Phase 2, focus on those partnerships that will aid in understanding the catchment and its litter flows, including activities such as data collection and interpretation to understand litter flows.

It is recommended that applicants set up a working group, as well as build relationships with individual partners.

The EPA Litter Prevention Unit and our research partners in DEECCW will play critical roles in developing aspects of the catchment study and providing input into any major initiative to monitor and reduce litter in NSW waterways.

A Key Littered Items Study (KLIS) site in the downstream receiving waterway is the expected starting point for a Streets to Sea catchment study (please see Options 1 and 2 below for specific details). Note that a KLIS site need not be located immediately downstream of the Streets to Sea focus catchment but should be in the same receiving environment downstream (e.g. in the same estuary downstream of the focus catchment). Using the KLIS monitoring data, the overall approach is to identify key littered items and then look for potential upstream sources of that litter, and prioritise what litter to target. Once these parameters are established, define experimental goals that relate to a proposed litter reduction strategy that can be tested via a pilot. After evaluation of this pilot, scale up the action(s) to prevent the litter making its way to the waterway.

Consideration of the catchment as a whole will ideally deliver a dual benefit: cleaner streets upstream and cleaner waterways downstream.

There are two potential options, outlined below, depending on the availability of KLIS data in the receiving environment.

Option 1: Work where there is an established KLIS site

There are 11 estuaries in NSW where there are already KLIS sites that have Australian Litter Measure (ALM) sites located in nearby urban areas, as per the following table:

Table 1: Existing KLIS and ALM survey locations

Estuaries (KLIS sites)	Nearby location (ALM sites)
Batemans Bay/Clyde River	Batemans Bay
Muddy Creek	Rockdale
Cooks River	Dulwich Hill
Parramatta River	Meadowbank
Brisbane Water	Gosford
Throsby Creek	Newcastle
Manning River	Taree
Hastings River	Port Macquarie
Coffs Creek	Coffs Harbour
Richmond River/North Creek	Ballina
Tweed River/Terranora Creek	Tweed Heads

Data for these locations can be made available to organisations on request.

Option 2: Work where there is no established KLIS site

Other KLIS and ALM sites are also in planning or development, and interested organisations should confer with the EPA about any plans that may provide opportunities for monitoring. An option could include the creation of a second KLIS site in a catchment where there is an existing site, in order to build a more detailed picture of litter in different parts of the catchment.

To establish any monitoring in a new site, surveys must be completed on at least three occasions to establish a benchmark. Support is available to do this, including training and ongoing guidance, however the grantee needs to take the initiative in driving implementation of the new monitoring with the support of DEECCW and EPA.

Please note that inland rivers are also in scope, with ALM surveys being run in three inland urban centres (Tamworth, Dubbo and Wagga Wagga) located on rivers, and with a variant of the ALM currently being trialled by DEECCW as a tool to measure litter along the river banks. Please note that the results of the trial of this variant are not expected to be available until early 2026.

Source monitoring

Litter sources should be monitored via the ALM. This Australia-wide standard methodology can be applied to a range of land uses and site types, therefore it is applicable in all Streets to Sea catchments. As part of an existing Stream 3 OIAA litter grant project, ALM monitoring is likely to be already established, partially established or ready to be commenced. Monitoring must consider the major land uses in the catchment and ensure that there is capacity to assess litter over time.

Similarly to the KLIS, establishing any ALM monitoring at a new location will require surveys to be completed on at least three occasions to establish a benchmark. The EPA can facilitate training and guidance, in cooperation with DEECCW.

Monitoring of litter flows

In some catchments, there may be opportunities to capture information about litter flows between the sources and the receiving environment (i.e., the downstream waterway). For example, this could include:

• litter picked up by cleaning activities such as street sweeping and litter picking
• litter picked up by community clean ups
• litter intercepted in stormwater devices.

Monitoring at or near the catchment outlet

You will need to measure litter at the downstream end of your targeted catchment where stormwater runoff is exiting the catchment into the downstream waterway, or as close as possible to this exit point. This could be achieved via KLIS monitoring, but where KLIS is not feasible, you will need to rely on other methods.

The KLIS standard method involves collecting litter from urban mangrove environments located downstream from major stormwater outflows. Mangroves, being located in the intertidal zone and with unique physical characteristics, are particularly prone to accumulating litter and provide a good reflection of litter that is present in the waters downstream of catchments. This methodology relies on a suitable site being available, where litter accumulates in the mangroves and remains undisturbed by other activities.

It may be possible to establish your own KLIS site somewhere upstream from an existing site and close to your target catchment, to plan and monitor your approach to reducing litter flows.

However, if Streets to Sea projects were limited to catchments with suitable KLIS sites immediately downstream, this could be a major limitation to the scope of the program. Therefore, it is possible that you will need to consider other receiving water sites which accumulate litter in a similar manner to mangroves. In these cases, consider the following:

• sites where significant litter accumulates, with a wide range of litter types that reflect the types of litter ending up in the environment
• sites where most of the litter accumulating seems to be from local catchment sources (i.e., not an exposed beach where debris washes up from marine currents)
• sites where in-situ littering will not occur by people using the area
• sites where accumulated litter is likely to remain undisturbed by other activities (e.g. not likely to be cleaned up in between monitoring sessions)
• sites which are accessible for monitoring
• sites in which temporary litter trapping, netting devices or other means of monitoring may be installed to capture litter samples.

In line with this thinking, as noted in Step 2.2, there is work underway by DEECCW to establish an ALM methodology for freshwater rivers, which opens riparian zones as potential sites for litter monitoring.

In coastal catchments where there are no downstream mangroves, it may be possible to survey marine litter through methodologies that produce data that is relatable to KLIS, such as the Australian Marine Debris Initiative by the Tangaroa Blue Foundation. Consult with the EPA on what may be viable in situations where the KLIS is unavailable as an option.

The litter flow analysis needs to build a conceptual model of the catchment and its litter flows, including both qualitative information and quantitative data. The first step is to gather all existing data on litter monitoring, catchment processes, the impacts of litter and current programs in the area. Collate this information and use it to build the conceptual model of the catchment and its litter flows. The following are data sets and elements that can be included in the model (note that * refers to compulsory elements):

• Spatial mapping of:
  • land use*
  • stormwater drainage systems*
  • waterways and receiving waters.
• Identifying litter and its movement in catchments:
  • quantifying litter
  • estimating sources
  • mapping flows of litter
  • identifying what and how much litter is intercepted between its sources and the receiving environment.
• Identifying key processes that affect the transport and fate of litter in your catchment, including:
  • processes that move litter from one place to another (e.g., water, wind, wildlife)
  • processes that lead to litter fragmentation (e.g., mowing, breaking up from motor vehicles driving over objects on roads, breaking up inside stormwater devices)
  • places where litter is intercepted – where litter either simply accumulates or where it is removed from the system (e.g., in stormwater devices).

Note that the litter flow analysis could include computer-based modelling but only as an adjunct to on-ground observations that identify processes.

The catchment study needs to include the following:

• updated catchment profile (see Step 1.3)
• monitoring results – including KLIS (or equivalent), ALM and any other monitoring results
• summary of baseline litter conditions in the catchment and receiving waters (noting that this will require at least 3 sets of results, and for KLIS these will each be 3 months apart)
• conceptual model of litter flows, showing sources, pathways, points of interception and other key processes
• summary of key litter sources and flows, identifying potential focus areas for intervention
• insights into potential partnerships and capability/capacity
• proposed scope and budget for Phase 3, noting that Phase 3 should be funded within the current Stream 3 grant.

The catchment study is a key step in providing an approval gateway for Phase 3.

During Phase 3, focus on those partners who can help to identify potential opportunities, evaluate their feasibility, estimate costs and benefits, and implement on-ground interventions.

The working group from Phase 2 may change at this point, to involve more participation from some members and less from others. For example, partners involved in setting up monitoring can be less involved in Phase 3, whereas there will be a greater need for engagement with partners who can help drive interventions to reduce litter flows.

Consider where and how to intervene to stem flows of litter. Consider opportunities to reduce the processes of dispersal and fragmentation, or to enhance processes of interception and removal.

Three main types of intervention are suggested:

• improving bin infrastructure to reduce litter overflowing, escaping, or being fished out by wildlife
• improving cleaning regimes to collect litter more effectively (e.g. with improved equipment and/or methods)
• improving stormwater management to intercept and remove more litter from stormwater systems (e.g. with improved maintenance regimes and/or infrastructure).

Consider a treatment train approach, where there are multiple points of intervention along litter’s journey from across a catchment, down converging drainage lines (both natural and built forms) to receiving environments, such as waterways or riverbanks. Given that no single intervention is likely to be 100% effective, the solutions proposed should cover multiple opportunities to reduce litter flows.

Evaluate estimated costs and benefits of different interventions.

Build on the existing litter data by designing a pilot where interventions can be tested and the outcomes measured, before proceeding to more widespread or long-term application of new methods. This work can follow on from the Phase 2 collaboration with the EPA and DEECCW, to use litter data to develop experimental plans to be tested via a pilot.

Please note that, while there may be opportunity to run the pilot as part of Phase 3, the resources required may mean that the pilot is designed as part of Phase 3 and gets carried out as an early part of the grant-funded implementation in Phase 4.

Select proposed interventions to include in the funding application. Consider expected costs and benefits as well as considerations around the following:

• feasibility - to deliver within the timeframe of the funding program
• risks – if the intervention does not work as expected.

Write up a litter management plan for the catchment, including the following information:

• key findings of the catchment study (Phase 2)
• opportunities considered to reduce litter flows
• evaluation of each opportunity, including costs, benefits, feasibility and risks
• proposed works and measures recommended to proceed with
• proposed program for implementation
• ongoing monitoring program to assess outcomes and to compare to a baseline.

A note on setting targets

You will note from the list of required information above, Streets to Sea applicants are not expected to specify targets in their Phase 4 grant application. Applicants do need to commit to setting and achieving a target as part of the ongoing monitoring in Phase 4, however Streets to Sea targets are set after benchmarks are established, and the after pilots are completed.

Streets to Sea monitoring can be integrated with monitoring already established in the WASM Stream 3 grant, in which targets will have been established for the region or the broader catchment (if not specifically for the catchment that a Streets to Sea proposal focuses on), using terrestrial data such as ALM.

The critical requirement remains that any target for initiatives funded under WASM must contribute to the NSW target of a 60 per cent reduction litter by 2030.

The management plan should be endorsed by all key organisations and decision-makers with a role in its implementation.

It should also be endorsed by the EPA Litter Prevention Unit before proceeding to the funding application for Phase 4.

Apply for funding for a suite of management interventions based on the Phase 3 management plan (up to $1 million is available).

Understanding that Phase 2 is when key insights are developed to inform planning, the funding application is not expected to include all the opportunities that will be proposed in the Phase 3 management plan, however an outline of thinking is needed. Select a suite of management approaches which are likely to be cost-effective, feasible and reliable to implement.

The funding application will need to demonstrate how the proposed suite of measures is expected to address litter problems in the catchment. This is typically expected to involve a range of measures to address litter flows via several methods at multiple points in the catchment. Note that it can include cleaning methods, cleaning equipment, infrastructure, enforcement, and improvements to monitoring (see ‘What will be funded’ above).

As noted in Step 3.3, an early stage of Phase 4 implementation may be a pilot that provides proof-of-concept, leading to a scaled-up approach as later stage in that phase.

Where the proposed implementation phase includes infrastructure and equipment, the funding can cover capital costs but cannot cover ongoing maintenance. Where it includes management interventions, these can be funded for a trial period that covers only the period leading up to acquittal of the Streets to Sea grant.

Please note that grant funding for major infrastructure is unlikely to be approved unless the grant application makes a persuasive case for how ongoing funding for its management will be in place beyond the grant timeframe. Well-managed collaboration with asset owners and managers, such as councils, Sydney Water or other land managers, will be a critical part of this effort.

Applicants for Streets to Sea funding need to have a WASM Stream 3 grant that is already funded; that is, the WASM grant will already have been technically reviewed, approved, announced and be underway.

Please note: The WASM grant program was designed to allow for iterative development of a litter prevention initiative guided by a 5-year roadmap that is approved as part of the funding application. While an existing WASM grant roadmap may need to be adjusted to accommodate new Streets to Sea activities, the expectation is that the Streets to Sea component will not interrupt the existing initiative but work in tandem with it, to complement it and achieve greater overall litter reduction.

Include ongoing monitoring and reporting to measure the outcomes of interventions and report on findings.

Examples of interventions to reduce litter flows

Examples of potential interventions include:

• Improved bin infrastructure: if poorly situated, inadequate or overflowing bins are an issue, improved bin infrastructure could be a worthwhile intervention. For example, many councils are now using solar-powered compacting bins in busy locations. Solar-powered bins can also include technology to increase the efficiency of servicing to prevent overflows and ensure clean presentation to encourage bin use. A cost-effective solution may be to install monitoring devices in public place bins to notify managers when bins need to be emptied, thus increasing the efficiency of the service. New bins should be considered where their implementation can be supported with a behaviour change initiative to ensure that new bins are well used and do not lead to other litter problems.
• Improved street sweeping: if litter is accumulating in areas which are not being reached by councils’ street sweepers, new street sweeping equipment and methods could be a worthwhile intervention. For example, this could include street sweepers designed for smaller spaces or complementary equipment such as leaf blowers, to shift litter from hard-to-reach places. For example, some councils use leaf blowers to shift litter from under parked vehicles, so it can be picked up by street sweepers from the roadway. It may also be worthwhile to trial increased street sweeping frequency or better-timed street sweeping in some locations.
• Improved enforcement: if compliance with regulations is an issue, improved enforcement could be a worthwhile intervention. For example, where litter is escaping from private property into the stormwater system, apply the learning from initiatives that encourage and enforce compliance of operators of business on private land with Protection of the Environment Operations Act (POEO) to prevent pollutants escaping into stormwater. For example, councils could audit business premises for compliance with POEO, focusing on businesses with higher risk of polluting owing to the activities undertaken by the business. This sort of activity could be undertaken as part of a focused ‘blitz’ with a complementary marketing and education campaign, as in Get the Site Right, which targets construction sites. In this case, salaries for new staff to deliver the campaign can be considered as part of the grant proposal.
• Stormwater quality devices: where litter is still escaping into the stormwater system, gross pollutant traps can be an effective method to trap litter within the stormwater system. As they can be expensive to install and maintain, use them in targeted locations as a complement to other measures.