Keep Australia Beautiful - Monday 23 - 29 August 2010)

Australia's annual Keep Australia Beautiful Week (KAB Week) and is the nations' time to think about the simple changes we can all make to reduce our impact on our local environment.

"Reduce the amount of rubbish we throw away by reusing or recycling it instead . If you're out and about, look out for public recycling bins. If you can't find any, take your empty bottles, cans and paper home for recycling so they can be turned into new products and packaging!" says Jules Lund KAB 2010 Ambassador.

According to KAB, whilst 99% of Australian households that have access to kerbside recycling do undertake recycling in some form*, there is still an excessive amount of rubbish ending up as litter, or unnecessarily being sent to landfill, from people eating and drinking when they are out and about.

Keep Australia Beautiful spokeswoman, Lara Shannon says, "Its great to see that Australians are embracing kerbside recycling in their homes, yet out of the total 43.7+ million tonnes of waste generate overall in Australia each year, only 52% of this is actually recycled.*"

"And it's not only our landfills that are filling up. Our throw away society and attitudes also have an ugly and harmful impact on our local environment, oceans and other waterways - and this is something that every single one of us can do something about!. It just takes shifting our perception of we consider to be ‘rubbish', such as empty bottles, cans and other packaging, and instead viewing them as a valuable resource that can be reused and recycled, often over and over again."

So in an effort to help keep Australia beautiful, this year's campaign is focused on reminding people to stop and think before throwing their empty packaging into a rubbish bin or on the ground, by highlighting the growing number of public place recycling bins that are available.

And, where recycling bins are not available, Keep Australia Beautiful is urging people to make the small effort of taking their empty containers and other recyclable waste home for recycling, so that they can become a resource rather than rubbish.

For further information on what you can recycle in your local area visit www.kab.org.au, or contact your local council to find out what public facilities they provide in your neighborhood.