Clean Up Australia Limited is a not-for-profit Australian environmental conservation organisation founded by Australians Ian Kiernan and Kim McKay in 1989. It was significantly preceded by the State of South Australia Keep South Australia Beautiful organisation founded over twenty years earlier in 1966 as a litter reduction campaign. The founders of KESAB were the Adelaide Junior Chamber of Commerce, Advertiser Newspapers, Australian Glass Manufacturers, Royal Automobile Association of South Australia, South Australian Brewing Company and General Motors Holden. This was followed by the Keep Australia Beautiful National Association Ltd in 1975 of which KESAB is a member. Clean Up Australia Limited similarly works to foster relationships between the community, business and government to address the environmental issues of waste, water and climate change. Since its inception, Clean Up Australia has grown to include other projects and campaigns including Business Clean Up Day, Schools Clean Up Day, Clean Up the Alps, Clean Up the Kimberley and Clean Up the World. The organisation is behind Clean Up Australia Day, as well as other environmental projects and campaigns. Clean Up Australia Day is held on the first Sunday of March every year and encourages people to clean up their local areas. Any person can register a place they plan to clean up on the Clean Up Australia website and others can join them there. Activities on the day include removing large items such as car bodies from water ways and the collection of general waste lying around.
History
Clean Up Australia Day was first held in January 1989. The idea was born out of an Australian Bicentenary event, "Clean-Up Lake Macquarie", which was instigated in 1987 by Ivan Welsh as Mayor of Lake Macquarie. Then followed the local "Clean Up Sydney Harbour" event in 1989 with more than 40,000 volunteers who collected some 5,000 tonnes of rubbish. The 1990 Clean Up Australia Day event was launched by the then prime minister, Bob Hawke, over the initial opposition of the then state premier, Nick Greiner. Greiner later reversed his position and offered his support for the event. "The Rubbish Report" is produced each year from data collected by surveying participants. As of 1990, 94% of rubbish was from packaging. By 1993, the campaign was focusing more strongly on sorting the rubbish collected into recyclables, and Kiernan was using Clean Up Australia Day to advocate for changes to legislation surrounding reduction of packaging and returning packaging to companies. In 1994, over 8,000 sites were cleaned up as part of the day. In 2008, Kiernan put a focus on bottled water, advocating for the expansion of container deposit refunds in Australia. In 2012, sponsorship cutbacks and a drop in private donations caused the organisation to let go all of its paid staff.
Clean Up the World
Clean Up the World was established in 1994 after Ian Kiernan and Kim McKay approached the United Nations Environment Programme, with an idea to take his Clean Up concept global. Clean Up the World is an international campaign that encourages communities to clean up, fix up and conserve their environment through the Clean Up the World Membership program. A Clean Up the World weekend is held on the third weekend of September each year and, by 2007, the event attracted more than 35 million people from over 120 countries to volunteer.
Other campaigns and projects
Business Clean Up Day
Business Clean Up Day provides Australian businesses with an opportunity to contribute to waste reduction and the improvement of the environment. Businesses register their commitment to implement at least one environment-friendly initiative in their workplace, giving them an opportunity to work as a team and make a difference to their local environment.
Schools Clean Up Day
Schools Clean Up Day is designed to allow students to participate in Clean Up Australia as part of a school activity.
Clean Up the Kimberley
Clean Up the Kimberley is a series of community action-based projects focussed on the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The primary objectives of this initiative are to clean up rubbish hot spots, increase awareness of the scale and impact of rubbish in the region, change tourist and local community behaviour and improve local recycling and waste management infrastructure.
