By Emma Sun
YARRA Ranges residents young and old are grabbing their gloves and rubbish bags to tidy the community.
With Clean Up Australia Day coming up this week, schools and community groups will be rolling their sleeves and getting their hands dirty – and there are many ways for everyone to get involved.
Wattle View Primary School in Ferntree Gully will be participating in the Schools Clean Up Day on Friday 2 March which will see students and staff cleaning not only the school grounds but nearby streets and parks as well.
Sustainability teacher Stuart Hanmer said every student, teacher and staff member present on the day will be involved and hoped it would raise awareness.
“Although there is the national event on the Sunday afterwards we thought we’d get more students involved if they do it during school time,” he said.
“We think it is important for the kids to take responsibility for the community because one day they’ll be adults and they’ll inherit that so they need to take care of their own backyard.
“We’re promoting this as a whole school event to give back to the community.”
More than 565,000 removed about 16,464 tonnes of rubbish across Australia last year with cigarettes being the largest percentage of a single item collected on the day.
Since the event started 22 years ago, more than 237,500 tonnes of rubbish has been collected.
There will also be clean-up events happening in other parts of the hills on the actual day on Sunday 4 March.
The Belgrave Traders Association will have a Belgrave event from 9am to 1pm with a focus on gardening and weed removal.
Volunteers can meet in Blacksmiths Way near the train station.
For more information, contact Marina Dennis on 9754 1027.
The Emerald Clean Team will also be holding an event at Worrell Reserve in Emerald from 9am to 11am.
Volunteers are asked to meet near the netball courts and are asked to bring their own gloves.
For more information about Clean Up Australia Day or to register visit www.cleanup.org.au or call 1800 CUA DAY.
