Clean Up Australia Day – tackling the unnatural disaster
Congratulations to Ian Kiernan on the 20th ‘Clean Up Australia Day’, with 7,084 sites registered in 2010. Congratulations also to Carmel Wallace for her stunning works (exhibited at 101 Collins Street, Melbourne) made from litter collected from the beach at Discovery Bay.
Carmel's 'colony' of rope collected on Discovery Bay beach
During the 2008-09 year, the Victorian EPA issued 19,465 litter infringement notices, around 90% involving cigarette butts tossed from vehicles, earning a $234 fine.
In March 2010, members of Transition Town Port Phillip collected and surveyed litter from St Kilda West Beach. Cigarette butts made up 39% of 816 items collected. Other common items were lolly wrappers and lolly sticks, bottle tops, cellophane and polystyrene packaging. Fifty-two pieces of broken (bottle) glass was found partially buried in the sand.
The good news was that very few plastic 6 pack holders (known to cause penguin deaths) were found. Has industry practices, government action, or public behaviour caused this improvement? Or perhaps a combination of these? This would make an interesting case study. One thing is for sure, it wouldn’t have happened without ordinary people taking the time to show they care for their local environment.
The Capel Sound Foreshore Rangers located at West Rosebud, held a Clean Up day and Barbecue. 27 people participated and 11 completed a litter survey. The area covered approx 500 metres along the beach, in the foreshore bushland, around boat sheds and along the roadside.
We estimated 1714 pieces of rubbish in total, not including the 2000 cigarette butts that littered the area – especially along the roadside – there was one per square inch, which indicates a dual problem – littering and also throwing cigarette butts out of cars into bushland.
The most unusual items included one toilet and one single bed base, found near Chinaman’s Creek. Interestingly we also found a mobile phone cover (new technology waste) and loads of duct tape. No one found a 6 pack plastic holder in our collection either, which is good.
The barbecue was a good way to relax afterwards, and we also spotted some members of the Port Phillip Transition Town on T.V that evening as they worked along the beach!!!