Litter Act 1979

The Litter Act 1979 is New Zealand's main law for controlling litter. For businesses, it is broader than obvious dumping or fly-tipping. It can apply where litter is left in a public place, put on private land without consent, or allowed to escape from a vehicle or trailer.

The Act also gives public authorities and Litter Control Officers practical powers. Those powers include requiring clean-up, requiring identifying details in some situations, requiring occupiers to take reasonable steps to stop litter escaping from premises, and requiring bins near premises where excessive litter is attributable to or emanates from them.

The Act can affect most businesses that occupy land, manage outdoor areas, or use vehicles and trailers. The definition of litter is wide. It includes refuse, rubbish, animal remains, glass, metal, garbage, debris, dirt, filth, rubble, ballast, stones, earth, waste matter, and other things of a like nature.

The definition of public place is also wide. It includes roads, footpaths, access ways, service lanes, malls, reserves, parks, beaches, riverbanks, lake margins, waters used by the public, wharves, conservation areas, aerodromes, cemeteries, some Crown or local authority land, national parks, and other open-air places the public can access.

Private land means every place other than a public place. The Act also defines occupier broadly. It includes a lessee, licensee, or other occupant, and can include the owner or the owner's agent where there is no apparent occupier.

The main offence is in section 15. A person commits an offence by depositing litter, or by having deposited litter and leaving it, in or on a public place, or in or on private land without the occupier's consent.

For this Act, depositing includes casting, placing, throwing, or dropping litter. It also includes allowing litter to be cast, thrown, dropped, or to escape from a motor vehicle or trailer. That means a business can have a problem even if the material was not deliberately dumped by hand.

The maximum penalty for the main offence is a fine of up to $5,000 for an individual and up to $20,000 for a body corporate.

There is a more serious penalty where the litter is of a kind likely to endanger a person or cause physical injury, disease, or infection to a person coming into contact with it. The Act gives examples including bottles, glass, articles containing glass, sharp or jagged material, and toxic or poisonous substances.

For that aggravated offence, the maximum penalty is up to 1 month's imprisonment or a fine of up to $7,500, or both, for an individual, and a fine of up to $30,000 for a body corporate.

Section 16 makes it an offence to wilfully break any bottle, glass, or article made of glass in or on a public place without lawful authority or the express consent of the public authority controlling the place. The same applies on private land without lawful authority or the occupier's express consent.

The maximum penalty for that offence is up to 1 month's imprisonment or a fine of up to $7,500, or both.

Section 17 creates officer-related offences. A person commits an offence if they wilfully obstruct a Litter Control Officer, fail within a reasonable time to comply with a lawful requirement of an Officer, refuse to give their true name or place of residence when lawfully required, give false details, give an illusory description of their residence, or pretend to be a Litter Control Officer.

The maximum penalty for an offence under section 17(1) is a fine of up to $1,500.

Litter Control Officers can enforce the Act and may summarily intervene to prevent the deposit or attempted deposit of litter in a public place, the deposit or attempted deposit of litter from a public place onto private land without the occupier's consent, and the wilful damage or attempted wilful damage of a litter receptacle in a public place.

If an Officer finds a person depositing litter in a public place, or from a public place onto private land without consent, or has good cause to believe that person has done so, the Officer may require that person to remove the litter and dispose of it as directed or in a way that does not breach the Act.

Where an Officer has reasonable cause to believe litter has been deposited from a motor vehicle or trailer, the Officer may require the user or owner, once the vehicle or trailer is stationary, to give their name and place of residence and the name and place of residence of any other person the Officer has reason to believe deposited the litter.

An Officer may also require a person to state their name and address where the Officer finds the person committing, or has good cause to believe the person has committed, an offence against section 15 or section 16.

Section 9 is important for occupiers. If litter generated on or attributable to particular land or premises is likely to be carried or otherwise escape onto a public place, the public authority controlling that public place, or in whose district it is situated, may require the occupier to take all reasonable steps to prevent that happening.

If it can be shown that excessive litter is attributable to or emanates from particular land or premises, the public authority may require the occupier to provide and maintain suitable litter receptacles in a public place adjacent to or within the vicinity of the premises.

If the occupier fails to comply with a proper request under section 9(2) or 9(3), the authority may take those steps itself or provide and install the receptacles, and recover the cost from the occupier as a debt.

This does not mean every piece of litter outside a business automatically becomes that business's legal responsibility. The trigger is whether the litter is generated on, attributable to, or emanates from the particular land or premises, and whether the authority has made a proper request under the Act.

A territorial authority may serve a written notice on the occupier of private land, or certain Crown or local authority land, requiring the occupier to clear away, remove, clean up, screen, cover, or otherwise obscure specified litter. The authority must hold the opinion that the litter tends to grossly deface or defile the area in which the land is situated.

The notice must give 14 days for compliance, or any further time specified in the notice. An Officer may extend the time if the occupier has taken steps to comply but has been prevented by reasonable cause from finishing the work in time.

The occupier may object in writing within 14 days after receiving the notice on the ground that the requirements are unreasonable. The territorial authority must hear the objection, then confirm, cancel, or vary the notice, and give written notice of its decision within 14 days after the hearing.

If the occupier is dissatisfied with that decision, they may appeal to the District Court within 14 days after receiving the authority's decision. To the extent a requirement is under objection or appeal, the notice is suspended until the objection or appeal is determined.

An occupier commits an offence if, after being served with a section 10 notice, they fail to comply within the time specified, unless the notice is suspended because of an objection or appeal. The same applies if they fail to comply with a notice as varied or confirmed by the territorial authority or the District Court.

The penalty is a daily fine. For a natural person, the maximum fine is $500 for each day the failure continues. For a corporation, the maximum fine is $2,000 for each day the failure continues.

The Act has a strict liability provision in section 19A. In prosecuting an offence against a provision of the Act, other than an offence against section 16 or section 17(1)(a), the prosecution does not need to prove that the defendant intentionally committed the offence.

That matters for businesses because lack of intention may not be enough on its own for offences covered by section 19A. For example, if litter escapes from a vehicle or trailer, or if a notice is not complied with, the issue may be whether the offence elements are made out and whether a statutory defence applies.

Section 19B sets out the only defences available to a defendant in a prosecution referred to in section 19A. One defence is that the act or omission was due to an event beyond the defendant's control, including natural disaster, mechanical failure, and sabotage, and that it could not reasonably have been foreseen or provided against.

Another defence is where the act or omission happened in an emergency and was reasonably necessary to protect a person's safety and welfare or prevent serious damage to property, and after the emergency the defendant took all reasonable steps to remove the litter or comply with any notice or requirement relating to the litter.

The infringement notice system does not apply automatically across New Zealand. Sections 13 and 14 operate only within the district of a territorial authority that has adopted them by resolution.

Before passing that resolution, the territorial authority must give at least 14 days' public notice of its intention. The resolution must specify the nature of the infringement offence or offences and the infringement fee. The fee cannot exceed $400.

Where a person is alleged to have committed an infringement offence, the person may either be prosecuted by charging document or be served with an infringement notice. A Litter Control Officer may issue an infringement notice if the Officer observes a person committing an infringement offence or has reasonable cause to believe the offence is being or has just been committed by that person.

The notice may be served personally or by post to the person's last known place of residence or business. A territorial authority may retain the infringement fee it receives if the notice was issued by a Litter Control Officer appointed by that authority.

If a body corporate commits an offence against section 15, every director, manager, secretary, or similar officer, and every person purporting to act in that capacity, is also guilty of that offence if the act or omission occurred with that person's knowledge and consent.

That makes internal controls important. If a business regularly handles loose material, waste, packaging, rubble or outdoor storage, management should make sure there are clear systems for containment, transport, clean-up and staff supervision.

Where a person is convicted of an offence against section 10, section 15 or section 16, the court may order the offender, under supervision and to the satisfaction of a nominated person, to clear up and remove the litter within a specified period and to a specified place. If the offender fails to comply with that order, the court may impose an additional fine of up to $500.

Where a person is convicted of an offence against section 15 or section 16, the court may also order compensation to the public authority controlling the public place, or to the occupier of the private land, for a reasonable sum covering the cost of removing the litter.

This Act is still in force, but the practical outcome for your business can depend on the facts. The key questions are usually where the litter ended up, whether it came from your premises or vehicle, who the occupier is, whether a public authority has made a proper request, and whether your district has adopted the infringement regime.

If your business has outdoor operations, customer-facing waste, or vehicle movements, it is worth checking your site controls and records now rather than waiting for a complaint, notice or prosecution.