Two dozen volunteers picked up more than 10,000 bits of rubbish, including almost 5000 cigarette butts, on Geelong’s waterfront in an annual clean-up on Tuesday.
Caring For Our Bays (CFOB) coordinator Angeline Poole said the event showed the community could “make a difference in the battle to keep the bay clean”.
“Today’s clean-up shows that our community cares about their environment – but we need to think twice about cigarette butts.”
Local companies and community groups joined forces to remove six “large” bags of rubbish from Eastern Beach for Business Clean Up Day, Ms Poole said.
“We all can do our bit to keep our bays clean.
“Reducing waste, putting rubbish in the correct bin, cleaning up on Australia Day, becoming a CFOB volunteer or joining the monthly Geelong or Bellarine beach patrol clean ups.
EPA and Geelong’s council joined the “massive” clean-up, according to Barwon South West Waste and Resource Recovery Group executive officer Ashley Pittard.
The clean-up day was a great way to get the group’s reduce-recycle message to businesses in a team event, Mr Pittard.“We have collected 10,000 items which would otherwise have ended up in the bay that would have harmed the aquatic life and ruined our beautiful marine environment,” Mr Pittard said.
Australian plastic manufacture Replas supported the event by taking collected recyclable plastic to process into long-lasting products.
