Lets Clean up, Australia
“To inspire and work with communities to clean up, fix up and conserve our environment.”
I must admit, as an Australian I’m fairly embarrassed that as a first world nation we take such little pride in our waste management, regarding litter and rubbish. However, there is at least one very special day a year, when thousands of dedicated people set out across the country on a mission to succeed.
Sunday 6th March 2011 will be the 21st annual Clean Up Australia event, with the organisation going strong. An ever-growing number of groups, currently over 5000, have signed up for the event to take part in cleaning up their local areas to help make and keep Australia beautiful.
According to the most recent rubbish report from 2009, 10 of the most collected rubbish items are:
# 10. Foil confectionery wrappers
# 9. Plastic PET drink containers (made from a highly recyclable material)
# 8. Aluminium soft drink cans
# 7. Small paper pieces
# 6. Plastic bottle caps
# 5. Plastic chips and confectionery bags
# 4. Glass pieces
# 3. Aluminum alcohol cans
# 2. Glass alcohol bottles
# 1. For the fourteenth year running, cigarette butts, were the number one rubbished item picked up around Australia.
These items and more (including an anchor, Korean flag and a water bed in 2009) are cleaned up from beaches, school grounds, rivers, public bush land, parks, roadways and shopping centers across Australia annually. Topping the list of most littered places were outdoor transport sites with an average of 512 pieces of litter per site.
The report then continues to state that eight out of the Top Ten items were packaging materials, including packaging for food or beverages, making up 65.4% of all of the Top 10 Items found. Consistent with previous years, the Clean Up Australia Day crew report that plastic is the most common source of litter at 29%, followed by miscellaneous items 18%, metal at 17%, glass at 16% and paper at 13% of the total rubbish collected in 2009.
Personally, I have to say this annoys me quite a bit and has a harsh reflection on what’s important throughout our national values; smoking, drinking and unhealthy eating. Or at least, the irresponsible treatment of these activities, which result in the need for a national day of clean up, rather then each citizen being responsible for their own consumption.
Although the 2009 report is the most current available, historic records show only small decreases in some areas of national littering since the endeavor formally began in 1991. As great as this day is for encouraging a communal effort to make a change, this issue can certainly be reduced if everyone were to take small actions for a big result. There is a challenge to us as citizens of this beautiful earth, to drastically decrease the use and waste, for example, of non-essential packaging, recycling our technology and ‘cleaning up our climate’.
For more information about how to get involved and what you can do, please visit: http://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/
