A quarter of a century after the first Clean Up Australia Day, volunteers have cleared their 300,000th tonne of rubbish.
More than half-a-million Australians carted around the signature yellow rubbish bags on Sunday at more than 6000 sites around the country, the organisation says.
On the event's 25th anniversary, volunteers removed an estimated 13,500 tonnes of rubbish.
That's in addition to the 288,000 tonnes estimated to have been cleared over the previous 24 years.
"We should all be proud of our outstanding success," said founder of Clean Up Australia, Ian Kiernan, in Sydney.
He told AAP "there's no doubt" Australia is a cleaner place than it was 25 years ago.
"The support for the event continues to grow as we become more aware of the importance of protecting our local environment," he said.
But he said volunteers continue to find "staggering" amounts of cigarette butts, glass, plastics and paper.
Around 80 per cent of the rubbish removed each year is recyclable.
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