Towards a tidier Australia
Plastic in the world’s oceans will outweigh the fish by 2050, according to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.
Right now, there are trillions of pieces of plastic floating around and millions of tonnes sinking to the ocean floor.
In Australia alone, an average of 1580kg of plastic waste ends up in our water every hour – the same weight as a 2020 Toyota Supra two-door coupe.
You may think that because you’re only one person out of eight billion in the world, you can’t make a difference. But if you consider that the average Australian produces 540kg of household waste every year (not including food waste, which increases the number significantly), then every action and step you take towards making environmentally conscious decisions can have a big impact in the long run.
This March get your hands dirty, tidying up the country while taking stock of your household’s waste footprint.
Cleaning up today
Kick off the month alongside thousands of Australians volunteering their time on Sunday 2 March to pick up rubbish for Clean Up Australia Day. Launched in 1990, Clean Up Australia Day was the brainchild of avid sailor and environmental campaigner Ian Kiernan who was shocked by the sheer amount of pollution and rubbish he encountered while sailing the world’s oceans.
Last year, volunteers picked up an estimated 140,000 bags of litter on Clean Up Australia Day, helping to prevent thousands of tonnes of rubbish from damaging the environment and entering Australia’s waterways.
These days, Clean Up Australia’s goal is to eliminate litter – not only on one day a year, but to help prevent rubbish entering our environment in the first place. There’s still a long way to go if we want to make sure the trash doesn’t outweigh the fish in our oceans by 2050.
Zero waste tomorrow
International Day of Zero Waste on 30 March is relatively new to the calendar, beginning in 2023. When plastic was first developed in the late 1800s, it was revolutionary. By the 1950s, LIFE Magazine coined the infamous term, ‘Throwaway Living’ and at the time, this wasn’t a negative phrase.
Plastics have transformed our lives, and sometimes, it’s unavoidable. But the reality of our throwaway habits is also unavoidable, as towering garbage piles teeter in landfill, plastic bags rival jellyfish in the ocean and alarmingly, you and I are even becoming plastic, as we consume approximately five grams – the equivalent of a credit card – of microplastics every week.
This International Day of Zero Waste is a great opportunity to take stock and see where you can make an easy switch to use more sustainable and environmentally friendly options.
We’ve done some of the hard work for you, and found some household items that can be recycled, reused or composted that might surprise you.
Are you going to throw that away?
See our list of household items that can avoid the bin.