Last weekend 13 people split into five groups and managed to collect 1,530 items, a total of 42.2 kilograms of litter, filling 15 bags in a collection area from Cannonvale Beach to Airlie Lagoon.
An initiative of the Tangaroa Blue Foundation, several litter picking groups have been tackling areas on a broader scale across the full length of the Great Barrier Reef as part of the ReefClean GBR project throughout the month of October.
The small contingent of Airlie Beach residents did their part on the weekend in an effort to not only collect litter but, also create data that will then help instigate better community practices on a local level.
Organiser Heidi Tait said that small groups are brilliant at maintaining and monitoring their “small patch” to make a big difference.
“Our motto is that if all you do is clean-up, that’s all you’re ever going to do,” she said.
“By ongoing collection you get some great data and every region is different, so what solutions work here and what works up the coast are entirely different.”
In the Greater Airlie Beach area cigarette butts have been flagged as a major source of litter with 321 collected by the team last weekend alone.
Heidi has been collaborating with ‘Ditch the Flick’ for some time and works with local businesses to encourage better disposal options.
These include placing cigarette shaped bins that are brightly coloured at strategic points where cigarette littering is predominant.
By working in collaboration with other organisations and local business they can cure the problem rather than prevent the impacts.
If you would like to volunteer your time to collect and monitor litter on your ‘patch’, then head to tangaroablue.org where you will find a range of resources including a specially designed data collection app to record your findings.
The ReefClean at Airlie Beach last weekend
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