AUSTRALIA'S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES GO FAR BEYOND ONE DAY

We all need to Step Up.

As one of the country’s most recognised and trusted environmental organisations, Clean Up Australia has helped Australians take practical environmental action for over 30 years.  In fact Clean Up Australia Day is now the nation's largest community-based environmental event. 

But Australia’s waste challenges continue to grow. Now, more than ever, it’s time to Step Up and support solutions which move us towards a circular economy – where everything is a resource, and there is no such thing as waste.

Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment | National Plastics Plan 2021

Australia has a plastics problem. Australia now produces 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, equating to 100 kg per person. Of this, only 13% of plastic is recovered and 84% is sent to landfill.


More concerningly, around 130,000 tonnes of the plastic we consume leaks into the marine environment each year.


By 2025 it is predicted that 99% of seabirds worldwide will have ingested plastic.

What can YOU do?

Refuse. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. Compost.


We make very little use of the resources we already extract when we could be feeding them back into the resource loop, preventing rubbish entering the environment and waste going to landfill.

Food Waste

E-waste

Packaging

Fast Fashion
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Source: Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment | National Plastics Plan 2021

REFERENCES:

1. Australian Plastics Recycling Survey (2018-2019)

2. National Plastics Survey 2018-2019

3. National circular economy roadmap for plastics, glass, paper and tyres CSIRO

4. National Waste Report

5.World Wide Fund For Nature Australia and Boston Consulting Group, “Plastics Revolution to reality - A roadmap to halve Australia’s single-use plastic litter” (2020)

6. World Wildlife Foundation and Boston Consulting Group, “Plastics Revolution to reality

7. World Wide Fund For Nature Australia and Boston Consulting Group, “Plastics Revolution to reality - A roadmap to halve Australia’s single-use plastic litter” (2020)

8. Ellen McCarthur Foundation, “The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking The Future Of Plastics and Catalysing Action” (2017)

9.World Economic Forum, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and McKinsey & Co. “The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics” (2016)