I was out with my kids this morning at our local Clean Up Australia site.

It's inspiring that so many Australians care enough about their environment to give up free time to help pick up other people's litter.

On the other hand, there's a certain injustice about Clean Up Australia Day that seems to me to reflect the way environmental problems are tackled in this country.

Our governments are too feeble to make companies reduce packaging, and much of the population is too lazy, selfish and ignorant, so we ask people who do care - and probably don't litter themselves - to give their own time or money to fix a problem they didn't create.

GreenPower works is the same. Instead of governments forcing energy companies to reduce emissions, spreading higher fuel prices evenly, people can opt to pay extra to get renewable power.

Waste and climate change are communal issues. Solutions should be communal, with the costs spread evenly. At the moment those least responsible get penalised for caring.

In any case, there are easy ways to reduce litter.

The first is a ban on single-use plastic bags, which Environment Minister Peter Garrett promised (or so we thought) to introduce by the end of 2008.

What's happened to that?

Secondly, according to Clean Up founder Ian Kiernan, 88 per cent of Australians want legislation to introduce deposits on drinks bottles and cans. 

Such a scheme currently exists only in South Australia. If consumers can't be bothered to return bottles, kids can earn pocket-money retrieving them.

The Total Environment Centre estimates South Australia recycles almost twice as many drink containers (about 80 per cent) as elsewhere in Australia.

A national drinks bottle refund scheme is apparently on the agenda for the next Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC) meeting, comprising state and federal environment ministers.

Read CleanUp's submission to the Senate enquiry on this subject.