Volunteers have donated more than 32 million hours at 171,000 locations across the country over its 27 year history.

It’s safe to say since Clean Up Australia Day chairman and founder Ian Kiernan AO, launched the event in 1989 on Sydney Harbour, Australians have demonstrated a willingness to do something themselves to help protect and care for the environment and live more sustainably every day of the year.

Nowra’s Stacey and Ben Ring are one such couple to come up with a practical solution to reduce waste, recently launching Little Eco Baby Nappy Service – a modern cloth nappy lease and laundry service. 

“We’ve always been eco-minded and over time gained more enthusiasm for making sustainable choices and contributing positively to the environment,” Stacey said. 

“We were doing things like composting and recycling and over time we had learnt about the huge environmental problems disposable nappies pose, as well as the fact they expose our babies to chemicals.”

Australians use 5.6 million nappies every day, which means more than two billion used nappies go into landfill each year, where they take an estimated 500 years to degrade.

As any parent would know or imagine, making the switch from disposable to reusable nappies is a daunting decision.

Stacey said the staggering figures which revealed the impact disposable nappies were having on the environment, made it an easy decision to make.

“Even "eco" disposables have big environmental issues, which is really frustrating for parents who truly think they are making a better choice,” she said.

“These nappies do break down quicker – 20 years instead of 500 – and some are compostable, which is no doubt heaps better.

“However, anything compostable mixed in with landfill creates huge amounts of greenhouse gases which unfortunately is a yet another big problem.”

Stacey and Ben are also making every effort to reduce their carbon footprint, by running the service from a carbon neutral laundry, using renewable solar energy.

“As far as we know, we are the most eco-friendly nappying option in the country, which is really exciting,” Stacey said.

“We really want to make sustainable, chemical free choices available for families and we hope our nappy service is making reusable modern cloth nappies more accessible for time poor parents and reducing landfill in our area.”

Since the service launched, Stacey said they had been overwhelmed with positive feedback from the community.

“We have had lots of great reviews already,” she said.

“Local councils have been really supportive and encouraging because our service dovetails well with home sustainability and their goals in waste reduction.”

Clean Up Australia Day on March 4 will be accompanied by Schools Clean Up Day on March 2 and Business Clean Up Day on February 27.

According to Ian Kiernan AO, chairman and founder of Clean Up Australia, the event is more important than ever.

“What is clear is that our increased dependency on single use items is making Clean Up Australia Day even more relevant than it was when it started 27 years ago so I urge you to get your friends, family, team mates and colleagues together and sign up for 2018 Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday, March 4,” Mr Kiernan said.

To register your local clean up site and sign up as a volunteer visit cleanupaustraliaday.org.au