BY JESSI
On the 10th of August several members of our View Finders volunteer group went down to Clifton Gardens reserve for a beach clean up. We were joined by Julia Montgomery, Mosman Council’s Environmental Sustainability Officer. She provided special waste bags for us to use as well as a proper sharps disposal in case we came across any syringes, which we did not.
On the day we bumped into some local residents who were really inquisitive about what we were doing. After explaining our intentions we had some locals join us in picking up rubbish. As we went around we noticed that there were some items of rubbish that were very common to the reserve. These were balloons (presumably from a recent party), cigarette butts, bread tags and plastic water bottles. This made us reflect on how something as simple as a picnic could have a huge negative and lasting effect.
We spent the hour cleaning up the beach and reserve area and by the end of it had collected a few bags of rubbish. We then collated all of the rubbish and all together collected 50 liters of plastic, paper and other rubbish materials. We handed the rubbish over to Julia so that she could dispose of it properly. The reasons for our group deciding to do this were mainly to continue bringing awareness about the ongoing issue of pollution. We especially wanted to get the local community on board with cleaning up the beaches – we wanted to spread the message and encourage people to take initiative with this issue, which proved to be successful on the day from public participation. We all had a great time socializing whilst cleaning the beach and reserve and would love to get more people involved next time!
