Keep Australia Beautiful

Veolia Environmental Services has had a long history of supporting Keep Australia Beautiful. As one of Australia’s foremost environmental organisations. In 2006 Veolia was the major sponsor of the Inaugural, National Plastic Bag Reduction Awards.

The Plastic Bag Reduction Awards were an initiative established to actively encourage community groups, schools, local governments and businesses to establish frameworks to reduce the amount of single use plastic bags from their community.

Launched in June 2006 by Cricketing legend, Glenn McGrath, the awards received considerable interest, receiving over 100 entries throughout Australia. All entrants demonstrated that people power and innovation can and will make a difference.

As Glenn McGrath observed “It’s up to everyone to do their bit to keep Australia Beautiful”. The National Winners of the 2006 Plastic Bag Reduction Awards were announced in October 2006. Veolia is proud to acknowledge these winners below:

• Centro Colonnades Shopping Centre, SA (Business)
  Addressing the issue of plastic bag use at the very heart of the problem, the Centro Colonnades - ‘We’re parting with plastic’ program, demonstrated a multi-level approach to eliminating plastic bag use. This initiative sets a benchmark for all shopping centres to follow, particularly to help ensure that the supermarket industry meets the plastic bag reduction targets set by the Government.
  
• North Haven Dolphin Rangers Club, SA (Schools)
  This initiative involved 90 students from the North Haven primary and junior primary school, and was awarded a national winner for their engagement with the local community to reduce plastic bag use whilst also protecting marine animals along the coast. The student’s efforts in assisting the Torrens Island Sunday Market to become plastic bag free, also helped raise money for the Port River Dolphin Sanctuary.
• Shire of Esperance, WA (Government Authority)
  Incorporating public advocacy, community education, school, retail participation and volunteer support, the Esperance Bag Smart Programme has resulted in a 75% reduction in the use of plastic shopping bags within the community.
• Redlands Tourism, QLD (Community Group)
  Redlands Tourism, with the support of the North Stradbroke Island (NSI) Sustainable Tourism Committee, is dedicated to eradicating plastic bags from the Island through its “Ban Plastic Bags on Straddie” campaign. Partnerships were formed with a wide variety of stakeholders to change resident and visitor mindsets with their target being 100% of the NSI operators to be plastic bag free bags by the end of 2006.

Veolia is proud to be associated with Keep Australia Beautiful. The Keep Australia Beautiful organisation has been encouraging people all around Australia to care for their local environment for over 30 years.

Through their awards programs such as Tidy Towns, Sustainable Cities and the Clean Beach Challenge, local communities and individuals are recognised for their achievements in helping reduce litter and for implementing other local environmental initiatives.

Keep Australia Beautiful also works with schools to provide environmental education, with the construction industry through the ‘Clean Site’ program and with retailers such as Bunning’s to reduce single-use plastic bags. These are just some of the activities that involve up to 3 million Australians each year.

For further information visit www.kab.org.au.