The Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage, Brian Wightman, today said the latest Keep Australia Beautiful National Litter Index should serve as a wakeup call to those Tasmanians who continue to litter.

The Index surveyed litter at 983 sites across Australia in 2011- 12, including beaches, car parks, highways, industrial and residential areas, recreational parks and retail locations.

"Although the volume of litter has been decreasing over the past few years, people are still littering lots of small items," Mr Wightman said.

"Twice as many cigarette butts are being dropped in Tasmania and I think most Tasmanians would find that pretty unacceptable.

"While many Tasmanians do the right thing, there are many who are prepared to keep littering - which harms our reputation as a clean, green state."

The most littered sites surveyed within Tasmania were generally retail and industrial sites; industrial locations were also associated with the largest estimated volume of litter. There were also moderate numbers of litter items observed at shopping centres, car parks and beaches.

Mr Wightman said the results should be a disappointment for all Tasmanians.

"Despite a number of Tasmanian Government initiatives around litter education and enforcement, it appears the message is not getting through," he said.

"While many Australian states have decreased littering over the years, others - like Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania - have had spikes in the number of littered items over the past two or three years.

"Reducing littering is everyone's responsibility and I believe we can all do better when it comes to disposing of rubbish in an appropriate manner."

Mr Wightman said the index found that cigarette butts were the most frequently identified item across all sites in Tasmania.

"Plastic objects, especially takeaway food containers, contributed the largest amount of volume to the litter stream, with paper and paperboard objects coming in second," he said.

"I would encourage Tasmanians to take particular care with what they do with cigarettes and takeaway food containers.

"We have an extensive network of rubbish bins in the State, and I would urge people to show greater respect for our environment by either using these bins or taking their rubbish home and disposing of it there."

Mr Wightman reminded Tasmanians there are laws against littering in the state.

"For the financial year 2011-12, a total of 657 litter reports were received, resulting in the issuing of 436 infringement notices and 8 written warnings," he said.

"I encourage the public to make use of the litter hotline to report people who litter from vehicles or boats."

Members of the public can report littering offences via the litter hotline number on 1300 135 513 or by visiting: http://epa.tas.gov.au/regulation/report-littering

For more information on the National Litter Index go to:  http://kab.org.au/litter-research/