Clean Up Australia Day, Nationwide: March 1st

We are pretty good at recycling but half of the rubbish we produce is still heading to landfill, which we are fast running out of space for, or is being dumped in the environment.

We can all do our bit to make a difference. The next Clean Up Australia Day is on Sunday 1 March – the perfect time to get out and lend a hand to help clean up your local environment.

Registrations for Clean Up Australia Day are now open. To register just go to http://www.cleanup.org.au or call 1800 CUA DAY (1800 282 329).

As well as getting involved in Clean Up Australia Day, here are five easy ways to help reduce your impact on the environment all year round. After all, if you don’t help Clean Up Australia who will?

1.    Buy wisely and reduce waste

Reduce packaging waste by buying grocery items in bulk, purchasing long-life items and by deliberately avoiding items with lots of packaging. It’s often cheaper too.

2.    Take your own bags or basket shopping with you

The average Australian household uses 502 plastic shopping bags each year of which just 3 per cent are recycled. Return your plastic shopping bags to your supermarket for recycling, or better still say no and take your own reusable bags.

3.    Don’t throw away your food scraps – start a worm farm

Create a compost heap or worm farm for your organic waste. Not only will you cut down on the amount of rubbish you send to landfill each year, but you’ll also get some great rich, healthy soil for the garden in return.

4.    Get creative – reuse glass bottles as water carafes

Glass takes a million years to break down, so rather than sending your glass bottles to landfill where they’ll sit forever taking up valuable space, recycle them or get creative and reuse them around the house.

5.    Get involved in Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday 1 March

Register a Clean Up Australia Day site or volunteer at a site by visiting www.cleanup.org.au or by phoning 1800 CUA DAY (1800 282 329).