Over the last 32 years, Clean Up Australia Day has become the nation’s largest community-based environmental event and is one Ipswich City Council is proud to support again this year.
Nationwide, volunteers have donated millions of hours of time and effort to clean up rubbish, irresponsibly disposed of in their local communities.
For those interested in in making a difference in their local community, Clean Up Australia Day will be occurring this year on Sunday 7 March and council is offering free disposal at both Rosewood and Riverview Recycling & Refuse Centre for groups who register on the Clean Up Australia Day website.
Cr Andrew Fechner says Clean Up Australia day is a fantastic opportunity to keep Ipswich beautiful for residents and visitors.
“Our bushlands, waterways, parks and reserves help to make Ipswich one of Queensland’s most liveable cities and a wonderful tourist destination,” Cr Fechner said.
“An unfortunate environmental impact of COVID-19 has been the increased use of single-use items, some of which have been carelessly disposed of, littering our parks, streets, bushland and waterways.
“Clean Up Australia Day is an opportunity for our community to come together and help care for the environment.”
President of Springfield Lakes Nature Care Luise Manning has spent the past five years organising Clean Up Australia Day events in and around Springfield Lakes and encouraged Ipswich residents to get involved in a clean-up in their area.
“Clean up Australia Day is one of the easiest things you can do to help the environment and show you care about your community,” Ms Manning said.
“Whilst picking up someone else’s litter on a Sunday morning is not everyone’s cup of tea, volunteering on Clean Up Australia Day is a rewarding experience.
“Since the ban on plastic bags in Queensland in July 2018, the dominant form of litter being collected now is small and large bits of paper, plastic straws, takeaway coffee cups, confectionery or cigarette packaging, newspapers, cardboard, polystyrene, confectionary wrappers, fast food containers, packaging, and COEX drink containers.”
Along with cleaning up Springfield Lakes waterways, Nature Care will also be adding new clean-up locations to the list this year at Peter Tullet Memorial Park, Discovery Lake and Regatta Lake.
For those residents wishing to participate in a clean-up in their street you can register at a tent in Discovery Parklands car park and you will receive a bag and gloves for rubbish collection.
For residents looking to get out on canoes on the day and clean up the waterways, Regatta Lake pontoon will be available for you to register and launch vessels from Lakes Entrance Drive.
If you would like to get involved in Nature Care’s Clean Up Australia Day event please register your interested here.
You can also find and join a clean-up in your area here.
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>>> Council listening to residents’ concerns about overgrown parks and reserves
What your council is doing about waste
Ipswich City Council is committed to creating a sustainable future. With the population of Ipswich expected to double in the next 20 years, council is reviewing how it handles waste by developing The Materials Recovery Plan 2017-2031 (MRP).
The MRP provides a strategic direction to ensure waste is managed in a sustainable manner within Ipswich over the coming years.
Central to the plan is the circular economy approach which seeks to value waste as a resource by driving material recovery activities and demand for recycled content products.
Waste sent to landfills can be minimised by reducing food waste, donating good quality goods to charities and the effective use of kerbside recycling.
The community can also play an advocacy role through mindful purchasing decisions to encourage manufacturers and suppliers to consider the environmental impacts of their goods and services and reduce unnecessary non-recoverable packaging.
Last December council also backed The Waste and Circular Economy Transformation Directive, a new strategic and operational approach to manage and influence systematic changes across waste, resource recovery and circular economy.
The directive aims to establish a waste code of practice, drive industry best practice and compliance culture, provide strategic and sequenced remediation, protect residential amenity, leverage waste industry opportunities and plan for the future.
