While the activities the KAB campaign is promoting are simple and far from world changing, it is a good way to get "average people" to think about the issues and perhaps delve deeper. All the Australian relocalisation groups would be well served to get involved with the local KAB activities as a means to grow membership and promote even more robust responses, like relocalisation.

From the Keep Australia Beautiful press release:

As the highest greenhouse gas polluters in the world and one of the biggest producers of waste per-capita, the Australian lifestyle is taking its toll on our environment. About a fifth of Australia’s annual 550 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions are generated by households - that’s around 14 tonnes each. Each home also sends almost 980 kilograms of waste to landfill each year, despite that up to 80% of what we throw away can be reused or recycled.

During Keep Australia Beautiful Week, which starts on Monday 27 August 2007, all Australians are being challenged to ‘Save the World. Start at Home.’ As part of this, people can participate in one or more of the official KAB Week activities that will help protect our environment with simple and practical measures.

Round ‘em up and hand ‘em in
Schools, businesses and local groups can get involved by running a MobileMuster during KAB Week to help recycle the 16 million old and broken mobile phones stashed away in cupboards and drawers across Australia. This helps keep potentially hazardous waste out of landfill and, as more than 90% of the plastics and metals in mobile phones can be recovered, it will also help conserve our valuable natural resources.

Change a light for a brighter future
If every household in Australia replaced just two standard globes with two compact fluorescent (CFL) light globes during KAB Week, this would be the same as taking over 200,000 cars off the road each year and saves enough energy to power at least 100,000 homes for an entire year.

Refill & Save
About 1,500 tonnes of toner cartridges are sent to landfill in Australia each year, taking up to 450 years to decompose. As most empty printer cartridges can be refilled up to 6 times each, people can help reduce landfill waste and save up to 4.3 million litres of oil a year by participating in a recycling program with their local Cartridge World store.

Litter-free Challenge
What we throw away either ends up in landfill or on our streets and waterways. Either way, it has a negative impact on our environment. During Keep Australia Beautiful Week, people will be asked to set a litter-free challenge for their school, office or household. This could include running a local clean up or zero-waste lunch day, only buying products with minimal or no packaging, setting up a compost and more. A number of Aussie sports stars are already lending their support to the campaign and are urging others to get involved. This includes Cricket legend Glenn McGrath, West Coast Eagles players Chris Judd, Mark Nicoski, Ashley Hansen and Quinten Lynch, the Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club, Home & Away’s Sharni Vinson and the current Miss Universe Australia, Kimberley Busteed.

According to Miss Universe Australia, Kimberley Busteed:
“Australians are envied for our beautiful beaches, diverse and unique landscapes and our outdoor lifestyles. Sadly, if we don’t all begin to take simple steps each day to lessen our impact on the environment, the things we take for granted can not remain the same.

“From recycling your unused mobiles or refilling empty printer cartridges - instead of throwing them in the bin, to switching to energy saver lights and keeping litter off our streets, it is easy to make big difference with very little effort.” She said. For further information about Keep Australia Beautiful Week, or to register to get involved, please visit www.startathome.com.au

About Keep Australia Beautiful:
The Keep Australia Beautiful Network has been encouraging people all around Australia to care for their local environment for over 30 years. Through its awards programs such as Tidy Towns, Sustainable Cities and Clean Beach Challenge, local communities and individuals are recognised for their achievements in helping create sustainable communities.

Keep Australia Beautiful Week coincides with the first week of spring and is time for all Australians to think about how they can contribute to the KAB mission of ‘positive environmental change through individual actions’. These are just some of the activities that involve up to 3 million Australians each year. Further information about Keep Australia Beautiful can be found at www.kab.org.au