Letter from the Chair

The opening of registrations for Clean Up Australia Day 2022 came after pandemic lockdowns and changed habits fuelled a significant increase in plastic waste. Even as our lifestyles began to return to normal, our environment continued to experience the impact, with a huge surge in single-use plastics and an unwelcome rise in disposable masks littering our streets and waterways.

The United Nations estimated that globally around 75 per cent of the used face masks, as well as other pandemic-related waste, would end up in landfill, or floating in our oceans. The damage of single-use plastics left in the environment will outlive us all and plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing the planet. So, we were heartened to see our volunteers get out in droves to Clean Up Australia this year (despite devastating floods across much of Queensland and northern NSW), with a strong focus on removing masks and pandemic related litter. The wonderful volunteer spirit of so many Australians continues to inspire me every day.

Although best known for our national day of action, Clean Up Australia advocates that prevention is better than a cure. We focus as much on preventing rubbish entering our environment as we do on removing what has already accumulated by championing solutions that move us towards a circular economy. Our rallying call, that all Australians can step up and make better environmental choices every day is truly resonating.

We know that the community desire for change is enormous; a survey of 9,000 of our Clean Up Australia volunteers in 2021 revealed 95% of them were strongly supportive of the phasing out of problematic single use plastics.

Gratifyingly, state governments across the country continued to pass legislation to phase out many problematic singleuse plastics but there is still a long way to go to stop plastic polluting our nation.

Australia is finally on track for a nationwide container deposit scheme, with the Tasmanian Parliament passing its Container Refund law in March 2022. Dad was an early advocate for a nationwide scheme and worked hard over decades to push for it; he would have been delighted that every state and territory will now have a scheme for people to deposit containers in exchange for cash, donations, or credit. This will make Australia the first continent to support a comprehensive container return scheme and we strongly support wine bottles and other containers being recognised as eligible containers.

Our long-standing CEO, Terrie-Ann Johnson has announced her retirement later this year. Her unwavering loyalty to Clean Up Australia and commitment to the millions of volunteers through her 19-year tenure marks a truly commendable contribution to our precious country. am particularly grateful for her stewardship following the death of my father and wish her happiness in her retirement years.

Terrie-Ann will be succeeded by Jenny Geddes who joins in October this year. Jenny brings a wealth of expertise in the notfor-profit sector having held the CEO role at Workplace Giving Australia for a decade. The Board and I feel fortunate to have found such a high-calibre person and look forward to working with her.

We continue to diversify our funding and strengthen the financial position of Clean Up Australia and are so grateful for the support of our dedicated partners who share our vision and the generous support from community donations. Through their support, we are able to provide free clean up materials and education resources to schools and the community across the country.