mmg.com.au

A record number of volunteers rolled up their sleeves to clean up Victoria Park, as part of Clean Up Australia Day.

Campaspe Shire service executive manager Paul McKenzie said while he was pleased with the level of community support, volunteers also picked up a record amount of rubbish.

‘‘The number of participants at Echuca was a record with 70 volunteers registering and cleaning up Victoria Park and surrounds, with an additional 25 volunteers supporting Echuca Landcare in their clean up of the Banyule Forest,’’ he said.

Mr McKenzie said unfortunately the amount of waste collected was also a record at both sites.

‘‘Clean Up Australia Day is a timely reminder for us all to dispose of our rubbish responsibly to reduce the threat of pollution to the environment,’’ he said.

‘‘Thank you to the many volunteers who joined the hundreds of thousands of volunteers across Australia to help clean up the environment.’’

District residents joined more than 550,300 volunteers to remove rubbish from around 7341 sites across the nation.

Since Clean Up Australia Day started in 1990, Australians have donated more than 26,100,600 million hours towards caring for the environment through the event.

Their work has removed an estimated 288,650 tonnes of rubbish from across the country since it began.

Clean Up Australia chairman Ian Kiernan said early figures predicted this year’s volunteers would have removed around 16,150 tonnes of rubbish from the environment.

‘‘We all need to take more responsibility for our local environment every day of the year rather than our national clean up day,’’ he said.

Local participants included the Echuca, Kyabram and Tongala Girl Guides, McDonald’s Echuca, the Stanhope Scouts, St Joseph’s College Echuca, Rochester Primary and Tongala primary schools.

Their work focused on Victoria Park, Banyule State Forest, the Tongala Sound Shell and McEwen Rd, Kyabram.