You don’t need us to tell you how lucky we are to call Australia home. We’re surrounded by beautiful landscapes and beaches, and even those who live in our cities usually aren’t too far from a nature reserve for a hike or to the ocean for a swim.
It’s this privilege that we think makes Australians some of the most aware of the need to preserve our planet – we’ve also already started feeling the impact of climate change with floods, droughts and bushfires in recent years.
The importance of doing what we can to keep Australia beautiful for generations is more urgent than ever.
Keep Australia Beautiful Week 2022
Founded in 1968, Keep Australia Beautiful was our nation’s first anti-litter campaigner and sustainability advocate. It began with the aim to empower and help raise awareness of every Australian to be able to behave in proactive ways that support our environment.
Through a range of local and national programs designed to educate and inspire Australians to take action on sustainability and litter, Keep Australia Beautiful are on a mission to ensure we’re all clued up on how to do our bit.
Keep Australia Beautiful Week is one of the biggest national campaigns, with prizes and challenges to meet! This year’s theme is waste management with the challenge to #ContainYourWaste.
For one week, the campaign challenges you to choose an existing container from around the house – a jar, a tub, or a bucket – and contain the amount of waste you produce in that week to the capacity of your container. Acting mindfully around what you consume and use and encouraging education around what is and isn’t recyclable – do you think you can manage your waste for a week and make sure you create no more than a jar worth?!
Head over to the campaign websites to learn more and find out how you can step up to the challenge!
Climate Change: Uncovering the Facts
In a world filled with fake news and opinions, it can be hard to decipher what’s fact and fiction.
When it comes to climate change, there are many ideas and opinions, and not all of them are helpful.
We know climate change is happening – so how do you ensure you keep up to date on how it’s happening and what you can do about it?
Climate Change in Australia is a premium source of facts, data and information to help grow your knowledge about how climate change is showing up across Australia. Their projection models are a clear way of seeing how things are likely to progress if we don’t make significant changes.
They also have a helpful resource that breaks down climate change impact state by state in Australia that’s worth exploring if you’re keen to learn more.
Keep Australia Beautiful is a great way to learn more about how you can make positive changes and boost your knowledge about supporting clean, safe and healthy environments.
What Else Can You Do?
We think the #ContainYour Waste challenge is an excellent way to up your knowledge of how much waste you produce in a week. When we consciously bring our attention to these things, we can quickly find ways to improve.
The campaign has released the following tips to help minimise your waste for the week, but we think these are good habits to get into all year round:
- Compost food waste: Avoid overfilling your container with food scraps and divert your household food waste from landfill by placing it in your home compost bin. If you don’t have a compost bin, it’s easy to set one up – or why not see if your school or local community garden has one you can use instead?
- Separate soft plastic: Collect your soft plastics in a separate container and drop them off (clean and dry) at your local supermarket at the RedCycle collection point at the end of the week.
- Make a weekly meal plan and shopping list: Think ahead, plan your meals for the week and shop smart. Try to use products readily available in your household. Avoid making food purchases to reduce food packaging waste, and only buy essential items with compostable or recyclable packaging where you can.
- Go DIY for the week: Challenge yourself to discover new ways to be creative around the house. Cook it, bake it, make it or mend it yourself!
Learn More
We touch on a few other great environmental tips on our previous blogs, along with some of the career pathways you could explore if you’re keen to find a career where sustainability and environmental protection are a huge part of your role.
We’ll keep working to bring you resources and advice to help on this journey, as well as highlight key employers actively working to improve their sector and industries when it comes to sustainability for the better of our communities and the planet.
