Case studies
Clean Up Australia inspires and works with people to clean up, fix up and conserve our environment and below are just a few examples of how communities and individuals have been involved with Clean Up Australia Day.
Business Clean Up sites can vary greatly; some businesses use the day to Clean Up a local area, park, beach or creek whereas others use it as Clean Up their own office space and kick start environmental programs. Below are two very different examples of how businesses spent their Business Clean Up Day.
Qantas
In 1995 Captain Gary Gould observed that upon landing at Sydney airport international visitors first impression of Sydney was a dirty and unsightly beach next to the runway. In response to these observations, Laurie Howlett in Qantas Information Technology (QFIT) initiated the first Qantas Clean Up Australia Day to restore Commonwealth beach (now Tower beach). In that year, 27 IT staff, family members and friends braved the dreadful rainy conditions to clean-up the beach. In 1996 that QF Safety & Environment officially sponsored the Site and a great relationship was established between Qantas and Clean Up Australia.
In 2010, QFIT again responded to the need to clean the work environment and registered for Business Clean Up day. Their workplace was littered with obsolete equipment, old furniture and documentation and Business Clean Up Day gave them a perfect opportunity to de-clutter and clean up their workplace.
In the week leading up to the event, they engaged their EUC partners, Fujitsu, to remove "Not in use" equipment. Fujitsu recycles 98.5% of e-waste and 150 desktop PC's, 95 laptops, 13 servers, 85 peripherals, 50 printers/faxers/scanners, 25 TKT/BPP, 275 CRT monitors and over 100 cables, keyboards and mice were collected.
With great support from BIS management and partner suppliers on Business Clean Up Day, the Qantas offices were transformed into a hive of activity. The day started with a visit from Ian Kiernan AO to motivate and encourage official volunteers and staff.
200-300 IT staff participated and they commenced by cleaning their own personal work space and then lending a hand to clean and de-clutter all communal areas.
From that day Qantas disposed / recycled:
- 32 x 660L bins of general rubbish
- 10 x 660L bins and 30 x 200L bins (recycled)
- 100s of data disks and tapes (sent to e-waste disposal)
- 50 boxes of new folders (sent for re-use to other business units)
- 30 boxes of folders (sent to local schools)
- 100s of desktop phones (returned to Telstra for re-use/recycling)
- More than 20 boxes of stationary (returned to property for re-use)
- Over 100 Toner cartridges (returned to OfficeMax and Fuji Xerox)
- 30+ Mobile phones (sent to Mobile Muster)
- 100s of empty cartons (recycled)
- Over 200 pieces of furniture (returned to stores for re-use)
The successes and hard work were celebrated at lunchtime with all staff invited to a pizza lunch. Staff were given awards for best effort and trivial prizes including the oldest thing found - documentation from 1963!
Local Council Award Recipient - Sunshine Coast Regional Council
Sunshine Coast Council, recipient of the 2010 Local Council Award, received $5000 towards a community based environmental project. This award was generously donated by Veolia Environnement.
The Council has a well established waste education and engagement program called "Waste 2 Resource". Currently 11 schools are signed up for the Waste 2 Resource STARS Program, and 64 schools are engaged in the Waste 2 Resource Education Program.
Thanks to the award funds, the Council has been able to provide infrastructure for these schools in the form of Organics Caddies for the collection of organic waste for composting, worm farming or feeding to the school chickens. While the Council provides 240L yellow lidded wheelie bins for the collection of recycling for schools, the Clean Up Australia Day award funds have allowed Council to also provide schools with source separation for staffrooms and tuckshops in the form of "multisorts", slimline bins with colour coded lids more suitable than wheelie bins for confined situations.
In the first six months most schools have diverted approximately 25% of their waste stream. This diversion rate is continuing to grow as schools roll out the organics caddies and multisorts across more areas of the school. Council's vision is to support schools with infrastructure and training through the STARS program to ensure waste minimisation techniques are embedded in school curriculum to achieve long term goals.
Fuji Xerox Australia
Fuji Xerox Australia is driven to create sustainable value for its customers and that is reflected in their commitment to environmental responsibility and continuous improvement across all aspects of the business. Becoming a Platinum Business Supporter and having eight Clean Up Sites nationally shows Fuji Xerox's continued commitment to the environment.
One of the Fuji Xerox's Sites was at the Field of Mars Park in NSW. The team spent five hours picking up rubbish and due to excessive stormwater flow, they trudged through a mangrove swamp and found lots of rubbish in and around the creek beds. The overwhelming majority of the rubbish was food / foil wrappers such as chip packets and of course they also found plenty of plastic bottles and cigarette butts. After a picnic in the park the team returned to the office slightly dirtier than when they left but nevertheless feeling a great sense of achievement after a day well spent making a difference to their local area.
For more information on Fuji Xerox and their sustainability program please see http://www.fujixerox.com.au/sustainability/