{"id":29425,"date":"2023-03-02T23:53:47","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T23:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cos.net.au\/c\/?p=29425"},"modified":"2023-07-07T06:22:12","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T06:22:12","slug":"help-cleanup-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cos.net.au\/c\/cospedia\/help-cleanup-australia","title":{"rendered":"Help Clean Up Australia!"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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This weekend, as every year, volunteers will turn out in droves across the nation for one impactful day to make a difference to their environment. Clean Up Australia Day began over thirty years ago, the inspiration of an avid Australian sailor, who was so appalled by the pollution and rubbish he encountered sailing the planet\u2019s oceans, he organised a community event. Established in 1990 as Clean Up Australia Day, this has evolved as the nation’s largest community-based environmental event and an iconic day on the Australian calendar. There are also Clean Up Australia Day offshoots, including a dedicated Business and School Clean Up. It\u2019s calculated more than 20 million Australians have taken practical environmental action and participated in Clean Up Australia activities and events, donating around 38.5 million hours of volunteer time and removing hundreds of thousands of Ute loads of rubbish from 215,500 registered locations nationwide. Last year, an estimated 934,433 Aussies registered for 12,474 Clean Up sites, donating around 1,868,886 hours of their time and effort!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Clean Up Australia<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The Clean Up Australia organisation has emerged as one of the nation\u2019s most recognised and trusted environmental charities, helping provide practical solutions to live more sustainably every<\/em> day of the year. Their focus is as much on preventing rubbish entering our environment as it is removing what\u2019s already accumulated. A Minderoo Foundation report confirms Australia generates the most single-use plastic waste in the world per capita, with the equivalent of 60kgs of waste for every Aussie per year. The government\u2019s National Plastics Plan reveals we go through 70 billion pieces of soft plastics every year, that\u2019s almost 3,000 pieces per person! And of course, COVID-19 brought on immense disruption to our lives \u2013 and environment. As Aussies battled through the global pandemic, there was an inevitable increase in single-use plastics, including environmental culprits face masks, coffee cups, food delivery packaging and takeaway utensils. There are massive challenges facing Australia\u2019s recycling industry and while many States and Territories have now committed to \u2013 or plan to\u00a0 \u2013 ban key single-use plastic items, some, like disposable coffee cups have yet to be on the check list and others, including plastic bags, are hard to enforce.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Apart from what is clearly visible strewn across urban and nature areas, as if we needed further proof of our modern-day excesses, we should read Clean Up Australia’s Annual Rubbish Report. A snapshot of rubbish removed by volunteers during a calendar year, since 1991, this annual report has proven to be an invaluable resource in identifying trends in the types and spread of rubbish throughout this continent.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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What a load of rubbish!<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Based on 366,144 items counted from 1,075 surveyed locations across Australia over the last 12 months, Clean Up Australia\u2019s 2022 National Rubbish Report reveals some alarming findings:<\/p>