With a pupil free day on March 1, the school held its clean up a day early, on Thursday, February 28, to teach students the importance of looking after the environment.
“The Clean Up Australia Day foundation provided us with bags and gloves and so it links in well with our buddy benches and soft plastic recycling program,” Echuca 208 Primary School community engagement and wellbeing officer Scott Trewhella said.
“These activities teach the children about their environmental impact but also, with our movie night being held on the same night it was good timing to have the school grounds tidy.”
The 2018 Clean Up Australia Rubbish Report, compiled each year from data submitted by Clean Up volunteers, found beverage containers were reported in higher quantities in Victoria than the national average.
Plastic was once again the number one type of rubbish reported, comprising 37 per cent of the major sources of rubbish.
Litter directly associated with single use food packaging made up 58.6 per cent of the rubbish reported by Victorian Clean Up volunteers, 2.9 per cent above the national average.
Of this, food packaging represented 21.8 per cent of the rubbish count, beverage containers 20.1 per cent, beverage rubbish 10.1 per cent and chips and confectionary wrappers 6.6 per cent.
The 2018 report directly supports the need for consumers to think about switching from single use packaging.