By Jonty Ralphsmith
Online shopping, takeaway food, single-use coffee cups hand sanitiser, disposable face masks and personal protective equipment have one thing in common: the consumption of each product has increased during the pandemic.
The packaging and plastics associated with each has polluted the environment and can take a long time to break down, damaging the ecosystem.
“Our environment is experiencing the impact of the pandemic,” Clean Up Australia chair Pip Kiernan said in a press release earlier in the week.
Clean Up Australia is recommending Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday 6 March as a time to reset habits away from those that create waste.
“We do need to revert back to those better habits and when we make a positive change for the environment, collectively that can have a massive impact,” Ms Kiernan told the Gazette.
“We don’t want a few people living sustainably and caring for the environment perfectly, we want millions of people to be doing their bit and what they can do and that’s what will bring about change.”
Ms Kiernan further encouraged people to think about the impact of their habits on the environment.
“It’s those small habits repeated that has an impact. Exercise your right to refuse excess packaging -that sends a strong message to the company that is making that product. Seek out products made from recycled products.”
We support that idea of a circular economy where you don’t just buy something and it’s single use, it’s keeping those materials circulating – there shouldn’t be any such thing as waste, we should be capturing them and reusing them and repurposing them.
Clean Up Australia said that registration numbers are ahead of where they were at the same point last year but are urging people to continue joining to make the event the biggest and best in their 33-year history.
You can register at Cleanup.org.au
Clean Up is also running a Business Clean Up Day on Tuesday 1 March and a Schools Clean Up Day on Friday 4 March.
