Cleaning up: Charlie Roache spreads his message.
JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
LITTLE Charlie Roache doesn’t like rubbish.
In fact, he dislikes rubbish so much that the Newtown 10-year-old decided to do something about it.
Charlie’s determination won him selection for a new Keep Australia Beautiful national anti-litter campaign.
“I hate litter in our state. It looks dirty, messy and is really unattractive to tourists,” Charlie said.
The LITTLE Committee – Leading Integrated Taskforce Tackling Litter Everywhere – includes one child aged between eight and 12 from every state and territory.
The group of little kids with a big job has already attended a parliamentary launch in Canberra, shot two television commercials and feature on a website at little.org.au.
Charlie said his role on the committee was “exciting”.
“We work with an ideas buddy to come up with ways of telling people how to stop littering,” he said.
“Only 1.5 per cent of kids under 15 litter, so maybe the teenagers and adults are lazy or think it’s not cool to put rubbish in the bin.
“But there needs to be more bins to make it easier for people.”
Charlie said another of his ideas was to hold a school clean-up day every month.
He was preparing a presentation for the school principal to outline his ideas.
Charlie’s mum, Di Meade, said the LITTLE Committee met via a monthly video conference.
Charlie applied online after receiving an application form at St Roberts Primary School, he said.
Charlie won his way through an interview with the group’s mentor, former senator Natasha Stott Despoja.
Ms Stott Despoja said the LITTLE Committee represented bright new ideas and enthusiasm for tackling a big issue.
“Adults do most of the littering in Australia, so we’re putting kids in charge of fixing the problem,” she said.
