Media Release19 October, 2005

Now Online: Our Coastal Environmental Impact

Clean Up Australia has launched an interactive website located at www.cleanup.org.au/coastal, which for the first time will allow volunteers to immediately see the impact of the rubbish they have removed from waterways.

"According to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, three times as much rubbish is dumped into the world's oceans annually as the weight of fish caught," said Ian Kiernan AO, chairman and founder of Clean Up Australia.

"While a lot of this is jettisoned from ships, 60-80% comes from our land when it finds its way through stormwater drains into our rivers and harbours."

When school children and Clean Up Australia volunteers collect rubbish from coastal areas, the new website will allow them to enter the details of what they collected via an online survey form.

Made possible through a grant from the Federal Government's Department of Environment & Heritage, the website instantly converts this data into a series of pie graphs displaying the types and amount of rubbish found at site, state and national levels, as well as displaying ‘most found' items.

Results are also saved into an online database of all sites around Australia, so users can compare specific items found at their site or search for information about a site that interests them.

A variety of ‘Did You Know' facts educate users about the environmental impacts of the rubbish they have found.

"With the increasing use of the internet as an educational tool, it's great that kids can learn about the state of our environment in a fun, interactive format," said Kiernan

"The site also gives us the opportunity to capture information about the state of our waterways all year round while monitoring the sort of rubbish that appears at different times of the year.

-ENDS-

For more information about the website or to arrange an interview with Ian Kiernan please contact:
Eleanor Nichols at Clean Up Australia on 02 9692 1214 or 0404 078 830.