Clean Up Australia Day March 4, 2007

Every year hundreds of thousands of Australians help clean up their local environment on Clean Up Australia Day. It's fun, easy and everyone can take part. Individuals and local groups can either organise a Clean Up site or volunteer to join an existing site.

From Perth to Penrith hundreds of thousands of Australians collect and remove rubbish from the environment on Clean Up Australia Day.

The day is firmly entrenched in the Australian calendar. It is an apolitical, non-profit community campaign in which everyone can participate.

Clean Up Australia Day has successfully grown each year to make this community event the largest annual environmental campaign in Australia.

Why do we need to Clean Up Australia?

* We are the among the highest producers of waste, per person, in the world.
* An estimated 7 billion cigarette butts end up in Australian waterways, streets and parklands each year.
* 80 million plastic bags end up as litter in Australia each year - creating a serious threat to our precious marine life.
* 37% of all items collected on Clean Up Australia Day 2004 were plastic - recycling one tonne of plastic saves enough energy to run a refrigerator for a month.
* Recyclable material makes up almost 80% of total household waste in Australia.
* Over the past 15 years volunteers on Clean Up Australia Day have collected over 200,000 tonnes of rubbish - that's 4.7 million household wheelie bins!

Official Website: http://cleanup.org.au/au/GetInvolved/clean_up_australia_day.html