03 Mar, 2017

Let's Work Together to Keep Our City Tidy

The Lord Mayor is using this Sunday’s Clean Up Australia Day to remind everyone who works, lives, studies or plays in the city to help make Adelaide the cleanest city it can be.

Recognising that looking after the environment is not just the responsibility of those who are paid to do so – the Lord Mayor has called for everyone to pitch in.

“Let’s all work together to keep Adelaide as clean as possible and demonstrate the pride we all have in our beautiful city streets and Park Lands,” said Martin.

“I have no tolerance for littering and, as we strive to be a greener city, Clean Up Australia Day is a good opportunity to encourage everyone to pitch in and play their part.”

Responsibility for helping to keep the city and North Adelaide tidy rests with the City of Adelaide’s Public Realm team. The team is committed to ensuring the city’s parks, streets and public spaces are always well-maintained and does some impressive work including;

• Looking after 798 public litter bins, 185 butt out bins and cleaning 40 public toilets daily
• Cleaning 184km of roads and footpaths daily – the same distance as driving from Victoria Square to Hahndorf seven times
• Clearing 48 cubic metres of illegally dumped waste monthly – equivalent to emptying approximately 400 residential garbage bins on a weekly basis
• Maintaining 115.6km of stormwater mains – equivalent to driving from Adelaide to Cape Jervis
• Managing 776ha of Squares and Park Lands – roughly twice the size of Central Park and five times the size of London’s Hyde Park
• Recycling 5000 cubic metres of cardboard from city businesses annually – stacked together, that’s equivalent to nearly seven times the height of Mount Lofty
• Pulling some 350 tonnes of waste from the River Torrens in the aftermath of last year’s damaging storms

The Lord Mayor said he was incredibly proud of the work the Public Realm team carried out, often before the sun comes up, steam-cleaning our streets and removing chewing gum and litter.

The City of Adelaide has supported Clean Up Australia Day for 13 years. Local residents, community groups and visitors are invited to roll up their sleeves, don a hat and pair of gloves and join the public clean-up on Sunday 5 March from 9:00am at Kurangga (Park 20).

Councillor Priscilla Corbell will represent the City of Adelaide this Sunday at the event and be available to media from 11:30am, along with event participants for photos and footage.

Clean Up Australia Day 2017

This year the City of Adelaide is focused on Kurangga (Park 20) at the corner of South Terrace and Peacock Road which is easily accessible by public transport and has easy parking.

Each participant gets a certificate of appreciation, some ice cold water and a thank you BBQ lunch hosted by Councillor Corbell.

City-based Pulteney Grammar School is getting involved this year as are Scouts SA and many other local community groups.

Tom McCready, Associate Director Public Realm, is a big supporter of Clean Up Australia Day, knowing only too well the amount of litter that needs to be cleaned up in the city each day.

“While most of us do the right thing, we should all understand that the costs of cleaning up irresponsible rubbish disposal are borne by everyone,” said Tom.

“Some of the funds we allocate to keeping the streets clean could easily be redirected towards other community initiatives if everyone was more mindful of the ways they dispose of their litter.

“It’s important that everyone make a conscious effort to dispose of their litter responsibly for all our sakes, people are really doing themselves a disservice when they litter.

Volunteers for Clean Up Australia Day will be provided gloves, water and sunscreen at the event when they register and need to wear closed toe shoes. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.

Groups, including schools and community organisations can pre-register by logging onto www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au or simply come and register on Sunday.

Matt Halliwell