Every year Wood Wood resident Annette Blachford heads out on Clean Up Australia Day in a bid to beautify her local community.
For at least eight years Ms Blachford and her family have participated in the event.
Ms Blachford said she signed up for the cause because she wanted to ensure her community remained beautiful.
“I started after I kept seeing advertisements for Clean Up Australia Day on TV,” she said.
“That’s when I actually started to notice we had a lot of rubbish around town.
“I think Clean Up Australia Day is a great cause to be involved with.”
Thanks to Ms Blachford and other participants, her home town is now almost rubbish free.
“Usually we have about 15 people at the Wood Wood site and it’s the only one in town,” she said.
“Some of us pick up rubbish throughout the year as well.”
Last year’s Clean Up Australia Day report revealed that 85,401 volunteers removed 3,029 tonnes of rubbish across Victoria.
Beverage containers were the most common item removed (26 per cent), while food packaging was the second most common (17.5 per cent).
Ms Blachford said the group had found some very interesting items in the past.
“We’ve found a lot of tyres, jocks and even nappies,” she said.
“The most common things we find are cigarette packets, plastic bottles and cans.”
To read more about this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (March 3).
