Tamworth Clean Up Australia Day 2019 collection figures

And apart from including fewer bottles and cans due to their value in the Return and Earn scheme, there were other notable changes.

"There were two tyres and six shopping trolleys among mostly food packaging and paper collected," council waste sustainability officer Angela Dodson said.

"The number of shopping trolleys has reduced over the years, as have tyres."

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The council collated the figure after picking up rubbish from registered groups and taking them to Forest Road Waste Management Facility for either landfill or recycling.

A late influx of registered sites put Tamworth's figure for events during the week at 35 - made up of groups such as schools, community organisations and businesses.

Nationwide, 680,000-plus volunteers at 6834 registered sites removed about 15,000 tonnes of rubbish from parks, beaches, bushland, streets and waterways.

Clean Up Australia chairwoman Pip Kiernan said she was proud to see so many people upholding the legacy of her late father, Ian Kiernan AO, 30 years on.

"As Dad predicted, plastic is the main issue, comprising more than a third of the rubbish reported by our volunteers," she said.

"It's time to take responsibility and make the right environmental choices every day.

"Twenty years ago, Australians created just over 460kg of rubbish per person per year.

"Today it is more than 2700kg, starting from the day we are born. That's a lot of rubbish to manage."