Clean Up Australia Day is Sunday 6 March and it’s more important than ever that we all get involved. Among the regular garbage we unfortunately find littering our beaches, parklands and streets, COVID-19 has resulted in a drastic increase of masks and disposable gloves clogging up our waterways and threatening marine life.
Here’s how you can help to tidy up our beautiful planet on the 7 March and beyond.
What Is Clean Up Australia Day
With a 30 year history, Clean Up Australia Day isn’t just about picking up rubbish—nowadays the focus has shifted to how we can all reduce the amount of waste we create from the get-go. It’s about all of us working together to live more sustainably so we don’t totally wreck our home planet and have to move to Mars. So while we’ll be out there doing our part to beautify our own backyards, we’ll also be looking to the future and the ways in which we can clean up our environmental footprint going forward.
How Can I Help On Clean Up Australia Day?
Individuals
The good news is you don’t have to rally up a big crew to get involved in Clean Up Australia Day, you can get out there and help make an impact all on your own. There are hundreds of Clean Up Sites around the nation, find one near you here. It’s best to register online to help the coordinators plan for the day and take into account the relevant social distancing measures required by each state. Be sure to wear appropriate clothing and footwear and pack sunscreen and water as you’ll be outdoors for a few hours. You can throw in a pair of gloves to keep you healthy while you’re making the planet a better place—just be sure to dispose of them correctly afterwards.
Mates
Doing good deeds always feels better in a group, so why not gather up your mates and make a day of it. Pick a place you love that could do with some TLC and register it as a Clean Up Site, if it’s not already, and then send out those invites pronto. Bring a boom box to keep you revved up with good tunes and pack a post clean up picnic so you can enjoy the space after all your hard work, just remember to leave only footprints. It’ll help if you scope out a place to dispose of all the rubbish afterwards in case there aren’t any available bins in the area.
Businesses
While Clean Up Australia Day is officially a Sunday, workplaces don’t have to call staff in on their weekends to take part, after all, you might already be taking part. They can register their own event on any day of the year here. Why not encourage your boss to get around the idea, or score some extra brownie points and offer to run the event yourself? It’s a $150 tax-deductible fee to register and the Clean Up Australia Day crew will send out information packs to help get everyone on board. It also serves as a good reminder for your colleagues to look at the waste created while they’re at work and how it can be reduced.
Going Forward
There’s no time to lose steam once all the cleaning is done. Check out our Sustainability tab to find out how you can do better for the planet on the daily. We’ve got the lowdown on eco-friendly cleaning products, how to recycle your old bras and extra steps you can take in 2022 to nail your sustainability act.
For more sustainable hacks, head here.
Image credit: Urban List