CSIRO scientists took a good look at the 50 million tons of rubbish that Australians generate every year to find out where it accumulates and where it eventualy winds up.

"We find more litter in car parks and along highways and we find a lot less litter in residential areas, in parks and on beaches," said CSIRO researcher Dr. Denise Hardesty to the ABC.  But she adds that lower income communities tend to have more problems with litter:  "One of the things we've learnt that's really confronting is what a tremendously critical role socio economics has in the amount of litter that we're finding."

But this is not the fault of the residents of these neighborhoods - the rubbish would build up there whether there's a community there or not.  "Those places tend to be in low-lying wetland kind of areas and that's also a big predictor for high loads of debris," said Dr. Chris Wilcox with CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research.

The most common form of litter is takeaway containers, carried by water and wind over land, into waterways, and the ocean.  CSIRO's modelling tool could help communities determine where rubbish goes most frequently, allowing them to make the most of their budgets by targeting waste clean-up efforts more accurately and  efficiently.