The meanings overlap somewhat, but in US English, "garbage" generally means damp food waste, that will rot and stink and attract rats. "Trash" means dry waste like paper or packaging or discarded toys. Even before the days of recycling, many communities handled trash and garbage separately. The terms got to have an almost-legal meaning. You had to "separate your trash from your garbage" and "not put garbage in the trash." "Rubbish" is understood in the US but used much less often than "trash" or "garbage." "Litter" implies that something is scattered where it doesn't belong. It often means trash or rubbish that is just tossed on the side of the road, or on the sidewalk. Leaving litter is called "littering" and a person who litters is a "litterbug." It doesn't necessarily mean trash, though. You could say "his desk was littered with papers" or "the kids' room is littered with toys." Also, "refuse," accent on the REF, REFuse, is a noun. It is general, somewhat formal terms for something that is being thrown away. So is "waste." Speaking generically of garbage, trash, and recyclable material, a town might refer to "waste pickup."

If you're talking about waste material, garbage, trash and rubbish basically have the same meaning. Garbage and trash are mainly used by American English speakers, while rubbish is mainly used by UK speakers. All English speakers understand all these words, though. Litter has a different meaning. This only refers to cans, food wrappers, cigarette packets and so on which people discard in public places. If people leave litter in the street, for example, it means that they drop these things on the ground.

All used in the USA, but rubbish is least common.

Garbage and trash are American English while rubbish and litter are used in the rest of the English speaking world. I'm not sure if there's a difference between garbage and trash but rubbish is a general term which can be used in almost all contexts while litter refers to rubbish in the external environment ie you might have some rubbish in your home but would see litter in a park or on the street. I suppose you could think of litter as rubbish in a particular environment

Garbage and trash are used in the US. Litter (in the US) means garbage or trash outside of the garbage/trash bin/can, like on the side of the road. For community service, people have to pick up litter. Rubbish is a British term that means garbage, but that's as far as my knowledge goes.