Enlist for the environment

– Paul Pickering
HILLS people are being urged to join Clean Up Australia Day’s 1 million strong tidy-troop in a bid to fight climate change.
Clean Up chairman Ian Kiernan said that individual action to protect water supplies, restrict electronic waste and limit damage by plastic bags will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Toxic materials from e-waste, which includes lead and mercury from old computers and batteries, is being sent to landfill at three times the rate of other general or municipal waste and generates damaging greenhouse gases.”
More than 750,000 people participated in Clean Up Australia Day 2006, and organisers believe that the community’s growing interest in taking action to limit the impacts of climate change will push this year’s campaign towards the 1 million mark.
The Victorian campaign kicks off with Business Clean Up Day on Tuesday, 27 February, before schools do their bit on Friday, 2 March.
The nation-wide Clean Up Australia Day is on Sunday, 4 March.
Volunteers can enlist online at www.cleanup.-org.au.