Current Campaigns
World Environment News
Planet Ark is best known internationally for our 'World Environment News', service which is sponsored by Reuters. Read by people in over 50 countries every day, it is one of the world's biggest online environmental news services. Over 8 million people a year visit the Planet Ark site.
National Tree Day
In July 2008, 312,000 volunteers planted 1.6 million native trees at 3,500 locations around Australia as part of Planet Ark's 'National Tree Day'. We organise this event in partnership with Toyota and AMP Foundation. The event has been fronted by Planet Ark supporters Olivia Newton-John, Jamie Durie, Johanna Griggs and many other well-known celebrities, all of whom donated their time to the event.
Tree Day is comprised of Schools Tree Day and National Tree Day, which take place on the last Friday and Sunday of July respectively each year. Since the inception of Tree Day thirteen years ago, 2 million volunteers have planted over 13 million native trees, shrubs and grasses at more than 20,000 sites nationwide.
Recycling Near You
Research shows that 48% of Australians are confused about what they can
and cannot recycle. To solve this problem, Planet Ark collaborated with
Sensis and the Australian Government to relaunch the RecyclingNearYou
website, and launch the National Recycling Hotline in November 2006.
Together, these form a one-stop-recycling-information-shop!
The new RecyclingNearYou.com.au website and hotline include the details
for recycling and safe waste disposal in 672 council areas around
Australia. Users are able to search for local information by entering
their postcode, suburb or local council area. Those without Internet
access can access the same information by calling the National
Recycling Hotline: 1300 733 712.
'Cartridges 4 Planet Ark'
An estimated 18 million printer cartridges are used by Australians
each year, creating 5000 tonnes of waste. That's why Planet Ark joined
with printer manufacturers to set up the innovative 'Cartridges 4
Planet Ark' program, to facilitate the recycling of every type of
cartridge used in printers, photocopiers and fax machines and to keep
them out of landfill. This world first printer cartridge recycling
program is the only one that guarantees zero waste to landfill from the
recycling process.
Since the campaign's inception in 2003, over 8 million printer
cartridges have been diverted from landfill sites around Australia
through 'Cartridges 4 Planet Ark'. The cartridges are sent to our recycling partner Close the Loop®, an
all-Australian, high tech resource recovery facility. Close the Loop®,
now recycle printer cartridge e-waste to create eWood® - an
environmentally favourable wood substitute.
National Recycling Week
Recycling has never been so important as it is now! In a carbon constrained world, recycling is one of the easy ways in which everyone can make a contribution. Each November Planet Ark runs 'National Recycling Week'. At this time Planet Ark releases Australia's annual recycling figures and the latest research on the public's recycling attitudes. Planet Ark also joins with hundreds of councils around Australia to promote recycling and waste reduction on a local basis.
Festive Recycling
The festive season is a time where we traditionally buy more, eat more, drink, and more waste more. We also use a significant amount of energy and water over the summer. The Festive Recycling campaign runs from mid-December until the end of January to show people all of the ways that they can reduce their environmental impact during the silly season.
Aluminium Can Recycling
Australians currently recycle over 2 billion aluminium cans each year. This is a great effort, however 900 million aluminium cans are still thrown away in Australia annually. Six-time world champion surfer and 2004 World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year Layne Beachley has fronted the 'Aluminium Can Recycling and Anti Litter Campaign' since 2004. She has helped teach Australians know how important it is to recycle aluminium cans.
PaperCutz
Australians consume 4.4 million tonnes of paper and paper products each year that’s 200kg each! The production, printing and distribution of paper-based communications causes environmental impacts from the trees, water and energy used, as well as the solid waste and greenhouse gases generated in the process.
Based on information made available by the Environmental Defense Fund, on average, each tonne of paper removed from commercial correspondence saves:
- 18 trees
- 67,500 litres of water
- 3,300 kgs of greenhouse gases (Carbon Dioxide emissions - CO2e)
- 9,500 kWh of power
The ‘PaperCutz 4 Planet Ark’ campaign aims to reduce these environmental impacts by encouraging people to switch from paper-based to online documentation for their financial communications.
The campaign developed from a successful pilot program with Founding Partner Colonial First State which proved to be an enormous success with more than 100,000 of it's clients switching to electronic documentation.
Visit the campaign website to find out about the environmental impacts of paper production, to see what our campaign partners have achieved for the environment and their organisations through their participation and to discover how you can reduce your paper usage and contribute to a safer climate future by switching to electronic communications through ‘PaperCutz 4 Planet Ark’.
See the ‘PaperCutz 4 Planet Ark’ website.
Aware Environmentally Friendly Products
Our rivers are a valuable resource. To protect them, we sell 'Aware' and 'Aware Sensitive' environmentally friendly laundry powder through leading supermarkets. Millions of packs have been sold since we began this campaign, helping our rivers and funding our education campaigns at the same time.