8 April 2016
The beaches at Green Head are looking a whole lot cleaner than usual, following a recent collaborative clean-up coordinated by the Green Head Coastcare group.
A whopping 48 bags of rubbish (weighing 159 kgs) was collected by the dedicated band of volunteers.
Trash was removed from just over six kilometres of beach and headlands, and from the main road into town.
Participating in the clean-up event were members of the Green Head Coastcare group, Green Head Men’s Shed, other local community members, and two backpackers visiting from France and NACC staff.
The Shire of Coorow provided clean-up bags and tools – which were extremely useful on the day.
“It is great to see the community mobilise to remove rubbish from our beaches, but everybody needs to try to ensure that it doesn’t -p there in the first place” said NACC Coastal and Marine Project Officer Hamish Longbottom.
“A lot of what was collected today could have been recycled, instead of being discarded by the original users”. Hamish said that marine debris, especially plastic, affects all organisms in our coastal and marine environments – from seabirds entangled in fishing tackle, to mussels ingesting plastic micro fibres.
But all is not lost! As a community we can all do things to stop more plastic ending up in our oceans.
“There are simple things that we can be doing in our everyday lives – such as the classic ‘Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’; putting our rubbish in a bin; and stowing plastics safely on vessels so they don’t get blown out to sea,” said Hamish.
The hard-working clean-up volunteers were rewarded with a morning tea with sausages and bread provided by the Shire of Coorow.
If you know of a local beach that needs a clean–up, and you would like some help, please contact NACC Coastal and Marine Project Officer Hamish Longbottom on 9652 0872 or 0448 459 127.