INTRODUCTION
Australia's largest community-based environment event
Clean Up Australia Day 2006 was the nation's largest community-based environmental event with more than 700,000 volunteers across the country removing over 9000 tonnes of dumped rubbish from our beaches, parks, streets, bushland areas and waterways.
Families, friends, neighbours, businesses, school children and community groups spent the equivalent of 62,709 days cleaning up at 7564 sites. They rolled their sleeves up to remove rubbish ranging from car bodies and old computers and other electronic waste to thousands of chip packets, drink bottles, plastic bags and cigarette butts.
Ian Kiernan AO, Chairman and Founder of Clean Up Australia said the hundreds of thousands of volunteers and site organisers who got involved have demonstrated to government and to industry that more action to protect the environment is needed.
"The 2006 campaign has sent a powerful message to decision makers and polluting industries that the Australian environment is a priority for the community and more needs to be done to ensure it remains the envy of the world."...
Volunteers cleaned up 1594 roadways, 1312 parks, 712 coastal areas and 677 rivers / creeks. In 2006, the country's most polluted sites were Shops/Malls, Outdoor Transport, School Grounds, Park/Waterfront and Roadways.
Some of the weird and interesting items collected around the country included a slippery dip, cash box from a church, a Christmas Tree, underwear, a $100 note and a Hills Hoist.
The most common rubbish items found were plastic bottles, glass bottles, soft drink cans, and cigarette butts.
"Sadly, these rubbish items continue to turn up in the environment but plastic containers can and should be recycled, cigarette butts should be binned and we should all being saying NO to plastic bags," Mr Kiernan said.
The Clean Up Australia Day campaign not only provides a focus for Australians to get physically involved in cleaning up the environment but also a platform to implement positive environmental practices every day of the year.
Improving recycling through a refund scheme
Seven out of the 10 most common types of rubbish found on Clean Up Australia Day in 2006 were recyclable, including drink cans and bottles, and it has been a similar story since the event started on Sydney Harbour in 1989.
It is clear that much of the rubbish could and should be recycled so that it doesn’t end up in either the natural environment or in landfill. However, outside of South Australia, the only readily available and accessible recycling service is the kerbside system run by local councils for households, despite most drink containers being consumed in public places, away from the home.
New research conducted by Clean Up Australia has found that collecting a 10-cent refund for returning a used drink can or bottle would be such a popular scheme in Australia that it would encourage many more people to recycle and help reduce large amounts of rubbish being dumped in the environment.
82 per cent of Australians surveyed by Newspoll in February supported the introduction of a refund scheme for bottles and cans, while 88 per cent of people agreed that companies that make drink cans and bottles should help set it up.
Clean Up Australia Chairman Ian Kiernan AO said a refund scheme, similar to what already happens in South Australia, would significantly reduce the amounts and types of rubbish volunteers find every year on Clean Up Australia Day.
"A refund scheme in South Australia has proven its worth and if run together with the kerbside recycling councils offer there would be a big change to what turns up year after year in our waterways, parks and roadsides," Mr Kiernan said.
"Let's bring back the seventies, when cash for cans was hugely popular and community organisations could raise badly needed funds by setting up collection depots. It's a win-win for the environment and the economy."
Improving recycling rates would also help each NSW household reduce the almost one tonne (0.9 tonne) of greenhouse gas emissions they produce each year by sending waste to landfill, Mr Kiernan said.
