Clean Up Australia Day

Published on 12 February 2019

Get your gloves and tongs ready for Clean Up Australia Day

Registrations now open.

Soon thousands of people around the country will be rolling up their sleeves to help clean up beaches, parks, waterways, bushland and streets.

Clean Up Australia Day – the nation’s largest community-based environmental event – will be held on Sunday 3 March and aims to inspire and empower communities to clean up, fix up and conserve the environment.

But it’s not just the community getting involved, businesses are encouraged to focus their action on Business Clean Up Day on Tuesday 26 February and schools will be running their own clean ups on Friday 1 March.

Terrie-Ann Johnson, Managing Director of Clean Up Australia said 2019 is the perfect time to band together and clean up the environment and work
to reduce waste before it becomes a problem.

“Change starts with you. The key to success is stopping litter becoming rubbish. There are so many actions every one of us can take to help reduce the 8 million tonnes of plastic entering our oceans worldwide each year,” Terrie-Ann says.

“Small actions, like picking up litter, can help reduce the pollution clogging our precious parks, bushland, waterways and oceans before it kills our wildlife.”

Last year there were 465 registered Clean Up Australia sites in South Australia, with an estimated 41,174 volunteers that collected 1023 tonnes of rubbish. Nationally there were 7253 sites, 587,962 volunteers and an estimated 15,950 tonnes of rubbish collected
(Source: 2018 Clean Up Australia Day results).

City of Onkaparinga Waste Education Officer, Lynda Wedding, says the day is a reminder to think about how people can work together to reduce litter and care for the local environment.

“While Clean Up Australia Day strongly focuses on removing rubbish, it’s important to consider how we can reduce our waste and prevent rubbish entering environment,” Lynda says.

“The event is a perfect opportunity for everyone – family, friends, neighbours, sporting clubs, schools, businesses and community groups –
to make a difference to their local environment.

“It’s about protecting and caring for our environment and understanding how each of us play a part in creating a more sustainable and positive future.”

But as Lynda explains, clean ups can be undertaken on any day.

“Clean Up Australia Day helps put litter collection front of mind and gets people involved, but it’s something that can be done on any day throughout the year,” Lynda says.

“You can make clean ups part of a monthly catch up with friends, use it as a way to check out new areas near where you live, or do it during your weekly walk.”

To register a clean up site or join an existing site, visit www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au