Sometimes, the artefacts people choose to keep reveal less about zeitgeists than the garbage they throw away, the leader of Australia's premier clean-up campaign says.
A report released on Friday by Clean Up Australia has found the nation continues to struggle with rubbish, as Australians produce about 60kg each of plastic waste each per year.
But the trash composition shows more than meets the eye, Clean Up Australia chair Pip Kiernan says.
"Litter is definitely a reflection of what we're buying and how habits are changing," she told AAP.
"And we can see those trends over time."
Vapes were found at 22 per cent of surveyed sites, up 12 percentage points from 2022, which mirrors the growing popularity of e-cigarettes.
Face masks dropped out of the top 10 littered items after making up 3.2 per cent of the total rubbish count in 2022, while takeaway coffee cups took the eighth spot in 2023.
The report says this "may be attributed to the increased social activity in the aftermath of COVID-19".
In recent years, cigarette butts have become one of the most littered items, but Ms Kiernan says that has not always been the case.
When smoking indoors became prohibited, people started to take their cigarettes outside and since then the butts have remained a problematic litter item.
Even the November 2022 collapse of the national soft plastics recycling program REDcycle could be inferred from the surveyed rubbish, with the miscellaneous soft plastic pieces count growing by 11.2 per cent in 2023.
A lack of certain types of trash can also mirror policy changes and Australians' reactions to them.
For example, the number of littered beverage containers had decreased from 17.3 per cent in 2022 to 14.5 per cent the following year, and in South Australia, these items account for a much smaller proportion of litter than in other states.
Ms Kiernan said this could stem from the state's decades-long commitment to a container deposit scheme, under which locals received a 10 cent refund when they returned eligible cans or bottles to specific facilities.
"We put a price on these items and so they're no longer treated as waste - they're treated as a resource so they're either not discarded in the first place or they're hunted for and redeemed," she said.
But Ms Kiernan said everyone could do more to prevent the accumulation of rubbish.
At the highest levels, Australia needs a new national collection and recycling program for soft plastics to replace REDcycle and increased capability to process certain rubbish such as glass, paper and cardboard on Australian shores.
Individual Australians could also consider their rubbish consumption more carefully.
