Tasmania’s three Waste Management Groups are searching for the state’s most common litter items so they can make them the focus of future waste reduction education programs.

If you are volunteering in this weekend’s Clean Up Australia Day event (4 March), the Groups would appreciate you being their eyes on the ground across Tasmania and reporting back the biggest litter items in a quick Facebook poll.

The poll will be available at www.facebook.com/rethinkwastetasmania from 3 March.

More than 500 tonnes of rubbish are typically removed from the Tasmanian environment on Clean Up Australia Day, creating a great opportunity to collect data and get a snapshot of the main litter culprits.

David from Waste Strategy South says: “Food packaging and beverage containers made up more than half the collected litter in the last Clean Up Australia survey.
We’re keen to know if that’s changed with the rising profile of issues such as plastic pollution in our oceans and the harm caused by land-based litter ending up in our waterways.
Getting an early insight to the main litter items from Clean Up Australia Day participants will help us shape future programs that are most relevant to the issues we have here.”

Clean Up Australia Day is the nation’s largest community-based environmental event, running since 1989. Volunteers have contributed more than 32 million hours to litter-collection in the annual event, removing over 344 thousand tonnes of rubbish!

If you’d like to help out on Clean Up Australia Day and join a local event visit: www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au