Clean Up Australia Day
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Source : Dæhæna – March 2024
Clean Up Australia Day was first held in January 1989. The idea developed from an Australian Bicentenary event, “Clean-Up Lake Macquarie”, which was instigated in 1987 by Ivan Welsh as Mayor of Lake Macquarie. Then followed the local “Clean Up Sydney Harbour” event in 1989, organised by Ian Kiernan and Kim McKay, with more than 40,000 volunteers who collected approximately 5,000 tonnes of rubbish. The 1990 Clean Up Australia Day event was launched by the then prime minister, Bob Hawke. Clean Up Australia has evolved into an organisation that works with community,government and businesses to “provide practical solutions to help Australians all live more sustainably every day of the year.”
Today, the organisation’s focuses are equal in preventing new rubbish from entering the environment as well as removing what rubbish is already present.
“The Rubbish Report” is produced each year from data collected by surveying participants. As of 1990, 94% of rubbish was from packaging. By 1993, the campaign was focusing more strongly on sorting the rubbish collected into recyclables, and Kiernan was using Clean Up Australia Day to advocate for changes to legislation surrounding reduction of packaging and returning packaging to companies. In 2008, Kiernan put a focus on bottled water, advocating for the expansion of container deposit refunds in Australia.
Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/
