Clean up Australia Day took place on Sunday, 2 March. Over its 35-year history, more than 22 Million Australians have participated in the initiative, all for the same purpose, community and environment. The organisation provides a practical solution to help us live a more conscious life - a life with people and planet at the heart.
Orientating our lives around serving others and the world, is our core value here at Avondale. We’ve been called to be stewards, which is a calling to serve and protect this planet, and that can look different to a variety of people. For some, it’s pushing for better environmental legislation at a local or federal level. Ultimately, it’s a calling that can be as simple as picking up rubbish in your local community.
So, that’s what Avondale University staff and their families did on Sunday. The team gathered at the Morisset Showgrounds and collected 9 bags of litter that scattered the grounds. Event organiser, Marta Rutkowska said “One of our core values as a university is service and it was important to me that Avondale University contributes to Clean Up Australia Day demonstrating our passion to help contribute to the local community around.”
Environmental issues are social and economic issues, and you need all three to have a holistic view of the challenges our society faces. So, cleaning up excess rubbish may mean we need better waste management systems, or that we are perhaps consuming excess amounts of plastic packaged goods (Australians use 3.4 million tonnes of plastic per year). It could also illustrate that there are larger socioeconomic issues at play, and to help us better engage in these issues, we have the Sustainable Development Goals.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 global objectives designed to promote peace, prosperity, and sustainability for all by 2030. The SDGs recognise the interconnectedness of social, economic, and environmental well-being, encouraging nations, organisations, and individuals to work together to create a more just and sustainable world.
While the SDGs are global objectives, we can use them to help us navigate local issues. Beyond environmental impact, the 2021 Census showed that Cooranbong, Morisset and its surrounds, have over 50% of the community stop formal education by year 10 (SDG 4), 38% of people have one or more significant health conditions (SDG 3), and less than 1000 people looking for work (SDG 8). These statistics show that our greater vision of world needs can be refocused to local needs.
Picking up rubbish is just the beginning as we look to continually serve our local community in 2025.