AN old TV set, ceramic pipe, umbrella, bike helmet, 900-amp jump starter and two plastic drums were added to the 28 bags of general rubbish collected by BERG Mt Martha members at last week’s Clean-Up Australia Day event.
Also picked up were another 20 bags of discarded underclothing, dirty wipes, beer and soft drink bottles and takeaway wrappings at popular The Pillars rock jumping site.
Spokesman Barry Morris said 82 volunteers turned up to help in the mass annual clean-up – including 54 adults (31 females and 23 males), 28 children, and nine BERG members, with others helping at Bird Rock beach.
The big turn-out was the result of “saturation” promotion, he said. This included a BERG banner, Mt Martha’s lifesaving club, Rotary, primary school, and yacht club, as well as social media and the clean-up site listing.
“Even two young couples came separately from Melbourne because they liked our site’s location,” Mr Morris said.
“They all helped us raise the awareness and profile of this year’s clean-up event.”
“Member Jenny Selby came all morning and spent the extra hours helping pack up and sorting rubbish,” Mr Morris said.
Others sorted out the glass and plastic bottles, cans, cardboard and paper, miscellaneous and large items everyone collected.
“We could not separate all the numerous bits of stray plastic, as well as plastic bags, straws, lighters, bottle caps, small pieces of polystyrene and other myriad items,” Mr Morris said.
Also included in the 28 bags of general rubbish were plastic bags, bits of plastic and paper, food wrappers and containers, rope, gloves, cigarette lighters and condoms. One family of helpers collected a box of cigarette butts.
Also hauled out were 233 plastic drink bottles, 305 glass bottles – 256 alcoholic and 49 soft drink, 13 thongs, one bag of polystyrene bigger pieces, 332 aluminium cans – 186 alcoholic and 146 soft drink, five large balls, 10 tennis balls and five golf balls.
Birdrock Beach clean-up coordinator Di Lewis said and 35 volunteers she found it difficult to get to the site because the Esplanade was closed for the Sufferfest triathlon.
“It was difficult to get tables, chairs, bags in and to arrange registrations because we could not take vehicles in,” she said.
“It meant several trips back and forth. It was also difficult to bring some of the full bags back from the furthest areas as they were too heavy to carry or drag.”
First published in the Mornington News – 13 March 2018
