Clean Up Australia Day – 5th March 2023

Registrations are still open for Clean Up Australia Day 2023, with free clean-up kits available for the national event taking place on Sunday the 5th March 2023.

The kits include gloves, rubbish and recycle bags for individuals or families who wish to join a pre-existing Clean Up event in their area or want to create their own.

Yass Valley Council has been approached about organising clean-up activities in the Yass Valley. No response has been received to date.

Pip Kiernan, Chair of Clean Up Australia, explained that joining in on Clean Up Australia Day is one of the first steps Australians can take to maintain and protect our environment.

“Concerningly, our recently released 2022 National Rubbish Report highlighted that plastics account for 63 per cent of the rubbish items removed from our parks, schools, bushland, creeks, beaches and roadways, a 17 per cent increase from 2021.

“There is no better time than now to take practical action. Get our gloves on and get together to make this year the biggest effort yet,” said Kiernan.

The Clean Up Australia National Rubbish Report is a snapshot of rubbish items volunteers have removed across 1,075 surveyed locations in Australia during 2022. Looking at the results for NSW, the Report found that:

• Cigarettes dominated the top 10 personal items discarded by users
• NSW volunteers found higher than national average percentage counts for soft plastics, food packaging, and beverage related rubbish [lid/caps/straws]
• NSW reported the highest percentage of hard plastic as a rubbish type at 24 per cent. This is 2.7 per cent higher than the national average.

“There are many everyday changes that we can make outside of volunteering our time to Clean Up Australia Day,” said Keirnan.

“We can opt for reusable shopping bags and coffee cups, avoid single use plastics, make purchases with longevity in mind, and actively seek out reusable and recycled packaging. These are small steps we can take where we successfully reduce, reuse and refuse as often as we can.”

You can learn more about Clean Up Australia Day, and register your event here: https://www.cleanup.org.au/cleanupaustraliaday

• Topics:

• Environment