Clean Up Australia Day
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| Founded | 8 November 1989 |
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| Founder | Ian Kiernan & Kim McKay |
| Type | environmental conservation |
| ABN 93 003 884 991 | |
| Registration no. | ACN 003 884 991 |
| Product | Clean Up Australia Day |
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Key people
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Ian Kiernan AO, chairman |
| Website | www |
Clean Up Australia Limited is a not-for-profit Australian environmental conservation organisation founded by Australian Ian Kiernan, and co-founder Kim McKay, in 1989. It works to foster relationships between the community, business and government to address the environmental issues of waste, water and climate change. Since its inception, Clean Up Australia has grown to include other projects and campaigns including Business Clean Up Day, Schools Clean Up Day, Clean Up the Alps, Clean Up the Kimberley and Clean Up the World. The organisation is behind Clean Up Australia Day, as well as other environmental projects and campaigns.
Clean Up Australia Day is held on the first Sunday of March every year, and encourages people to clean up their local areas. Any person can register a place they plan to clean up on the Clean Up Australia website, and others can join them there. Activities on the day include removing large items such as car bodies from water ways and the collection of general waste lying around.
Clean Up Australia Day was first held in January 1990. The idea was borne out of an Australian Bicentenary event, "Clean-Up Lake Macquarie" which was instigated in 1987 by Ivan Welsh as Mayor of Lake Macquarie. Then followed the local "Clean Up Sydney Harbour" event in 1989 with more than 40,000 volunteers who collected some 5,000 tonnes of rubbish. The 1990 Clean Up Australia Day event was launched by the then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke over the initial opposition of the then state Premier, Nick Greiner. Greiner later reversed his position and offered his support for the event.
"The Rubbish Report" is produced each year from data collected by surveying participants. As of 1990, 94% of rubbish was from packaging. By 1993, the campaign was focusing more strongly on sorting the rubbish collected into recycleables, and Kiernan was using Clean Up Australia Day to advocate for changes to legislation surrounding reduction of packaging and returning packaging to companies. In 1994, over 8,000 sites were cleaned up as part of the day. In 2008, Keirnan put a focus on bottled water, advocating for the expansion of container deposit refunds in Australia. In 2012, sponsorship cutbacks and a drop in private donations caused the organisation to let go all of its paid staff.
Clean Up the World was established in 1994 after Ian Kiernan and Kim McKay approached the United Nations Environment Programme, with an idea to take his Clean Up concept global.
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