Keep Australia Beautiful
Renowned not-for-profit environmental organisation Keep Australia Beautiful is continuing its steady crusade to keep littering in Australia to a bare minimum.
Originally founded in Melbourne in 1969 by Dame Phyllis Frost, Keep Australia Beautiful has flourished across all 8 of Australia’s states and territories, helped in part by its nationally recognised campaign ‘Do the Right Thing’.
Keep Australia Beautiful is also known for its national awards programs – Australian Tidy Town Awards, Australian Sustainable Cities Awards, Clean Beaches Awards and the Beverage Recycling Grants. These programs work to encourage and support rural and regional communities to maintain a clean and healthy environment.
Keep Australia Beautiful also releases an annual report entitled The National Litter Index, which is Australia’s only litter gauge. Starting in 2005, the index measures 983 sites one hectare wide across the country. Interestingly, cigarette butts and plastic are leading the charge in the type of rubbish discarded.
The organisation also conducts regular research nationwide on the volume and type of litter discarded, to better assess ways of minimising the practice. Furthermore, it runs educational programs in schools across the country and holds the Keep Australia Beautiful Week in August each year, reminding citizens about the simple things they can do to help the environment.
Other, more effective ways of developing its cause have seen Keep Australia Beautiful start a campaign called ‘Litterers Anonymous’.
Comprising Australian celebrities Lara Bingle, Derryn Hinch, John Jarratt, Nick Giannopolous, Russell Gilbert and Tania Zaetta, Litterers Anonymous “hopes to make people more accountable for their actions and remind people to use the bin”. Particularly the right bin, given the growing number of recycling bins surfacing in Australia’s streets.
If you’re feeling equally passionate about quashing litter in Australia’s streets, there are several ways you can get behind Keep Australia Beautiful. Purchase a Green Ribbon product such as an Eco Voice no junk mail sticker for 50 cents, or use MyEarth environmentally friendly sandwich wraps, both of which are endorsed by the organisation.
Details can be found on the Keep Australia Beautiful website.
