Tags: Rotary Club of Bribie Island. National Clean up Day
It might surprise some of us, but the average Australian produces 1.5 tonnes of waste each and every year. While some waste is unavoidable, much household waste is quite avoidable. Good examples are plastic packaging and food waste. Many people also “consciously or unconsciously” drop litter around (paper, wrappings, etc).
Featured image(above): Ready to start
The rubbish we create through mass consumption is choking our streets, beaches, parks, bushland, and waterways. Along the way, it is also killing the beauty of our natural world – including our animals and sea creatures. It has been 30 years since the very first Clean Up Sydney Harbour event was started by Ian Kiernan, AO in 1989. Today, it is a National event and community groups, families and friends join together to “clean up” our communities. On Sunday 3 March, members of the Rotary Club of Bribie Island joined Australians around the country to Clean up Australia.
Bribie Rotary is always involved in National Clean up Day on the Island. By spending a few hours this way, we not only enjoy the exercise and comradeship of doing something useful, but we also realise how easy it is to clean up and preserve the beautiful environment we have on Bribie. The public spirit of Rotarians was at the fore again, and it was wonderful just having the company of this very special group and simply getting involved in an action that makes our world a better place.
Club members with the collected rubbish
It was like a treasure hunt really – walking through the bush and dunes around Rotary Park in Woorim. We found car parts, bottles, cans, polystyrene drink containers, bottle tops, cigarette butts and a couple of caps. Of course, we also found the fast food wrappings and cups from the usual suspects – just discarded where their owners had sat to eat and drink their contents. People are too lazy to carry them to the bin – perhaps 100 metres away. Just thrown, or dropped and forgotten – to blow into the bush or surf.
Last year the prize for the most unusual item went to John Oxenford and Ron Ward who dragged a mattress from the bush. This year I claimed the prize when I found a window frame and clothesline deep in the bush – I managed to drag them to the road and then, a fellow member, Rick Thornton helped me get it back to the collection point. We might well ask why anyone with any public spirit or pride would dispose of items like this – just throw them into the bush!
Perhaps if everyone took responsibility for their own rubbish, and “put it in the bin” then days like this would not be necessary. What a thought – what a resolution for us all!