This is where your trash goes
Education is vital
I thought it was food
Each year Region X runs two clean up sights on the water in the Eurobodalla as part of the National Clean Up Australia Campaign. A great initiative where volunteer site supervisors manage teams of dedicated and passionate people who get involved.
The sites are registered by anyone online, you can browse and join any site that is listed. The Eurobodalla Shire Council Clean up Australia Campaign project officer does fantastic things to manage the lead up of the event, they are then involved in the important data collection including volunteer numbers, types and amount of rubbish in the environment as well as managing donations to volunteers from sponsors and local business.
Being involved (at any level) is a great way to help any community and perfect way to educate your kids about rubbish in the environment. Lets face it, were all consume, so were all responsible for the production of these products that end up in our environment as rubbish.
A great campaign started called “Take 3 for the sea” aimed at Action, asking people to make a simple decision to take 3 bits of rubbish when you leave the beach, waterway or estuary. Their cool imagery above is powerful, educating people about where “litter” ends up if its not disposed of correctly – thats right most if not all of it ends up in the sea, and that is causing big problems.
I just love the image they use (see below) a really powerful thought provoking way of teaching everyone that no matter where you drop your trash, after rain, it finds its way into the gutter. Thats the problem, all stormwater enters estuaries, rivers, bays and eventually the ocean without any control. So when you put your cigarette out on the pavement ….. it goes in the sea for sure. Over time most plastic will start to break down, thats when we get big problems. Check this out ….
“The majority of the problem is actually microplastic (less than 5mm but entered a waterway as a larger object) and depending on its density, some sink, some float, and some just hover in the water column. This is where it gets scary—because the plastic resembles food, it is eaten by a huge range of animals throughout the food chain, including fish, birds, turtles, whales, and even microscopic plankton.” Tim Silverwood is Vice-President & Co-Founder of Take 3. Watch his TEDx talk on plastic here.
Scientists believe we are now eating plastic …. and thats enough to make me want to get involved in more of the Clean up initiatives.
In 2016, Region X are asking you, the locals, visitors and coastal users:
Where you would like us to bring a load of kayaks to clean up a waterway? Name a location and we can be there.
Lets get this stuff before it ends up in the ocean and into the stomachs of marine creatures, they never asked for it.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sxWWY–T-0[/youtube]