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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-05 Daily Xml
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CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY

Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide) (15:40): Every year Clean Up Australia Day rolls around, and every year I have two reactions to it. One is that it is a great day to get out into our community with our neighbours and tidy up our environment. The other is that we should probably be doing this more than once a year, and many excellent volunteers are doing just that. I refer to people like Renata, living on the Lefevre Peninsula. Every Sunday she gets out with a small group of people and picks up litter thrown from cars and trucks along Victoria Road, but for many people Clean Up Australia Day is a reminder that we are responsible for the environment around us.

Mawson Lakes Environment Watch—a group I have praised before in this place—arranged a huge effort in Mawson Lakes on Sunday, ably joined by other groups like the local Scouts and Cubs. Their haul was some 75 bags, which is staggering considering how tidy and clean Mawson Lakes looks all year round. In the Port Adelaide area, my office arranged a clean-up at Cruikshank's Corner, under the Diver Derrick Bridge and around the area where the boat launch beach was recently put in and where the inaugural Rowing Regatta was held on Australia Day. Our haul included various items of clothing, a flotation device and the seemingly inevitable collection of plastics and butts.

What fascinates me is what people choose to throw away, and how it varies across the country. There is not yet a report for Sunday's clean-up, but last year's makes interesting reading. In South Australia, there is only one variety of drink container in the top 10, and that represented only 3 per cent of the litter picked up. It is not possible for me to tell from that report whether those drink containers are the sort that do not attract the deposit, but I certainly saw lots of thrown-away coffee and soft drink cup containers on the weekend at both sites. In contrast, across Australia, drink containers of various sorts are the second, third, sixth and ninth in the top 10, with a cumulative percentage of 19.

It is inescapable that our container deposit of 10¢ has made an enormous difference to the decision made by people about whether they will toss or recycle their drink containers. I call upon businesses that provide disposable food and drink containers to consider how they can take responsibility for the fate of those containers after they leave their premises. A reward from the businesses for containers returned might be a good plan. There is no worse advertising than seeing fast-food containers strewn about our beautiful city.

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