The organisers of one of the city’s most prominent Clean Up Australia Day sites have reported a significant drop in the amount of litter needing to be picked up this year.
Luise Manning, president of Springfield Lakes Nature Care, has organised the Springfield Lakes Clean Up Australia Day event for the past five years and said the drop in litter was noticeable.
“We pretty pleased there is a lot less litter this year, as we feel more people are cleaning up and participating in container exchanges,” Mrs Manning said.
“We noticed a decline in polystyrene foam from building sites, but we did see an increase of take away items, such as plastic and paper food bags, water bottles, confectionary wrappers and small pieces of plastic.
“This could be as a result of COVID-19 as more people dined in parks.
“We want to encourage locals to continue to place litter and particular food scraps in bins with secure lids… as crows are scavengers and will often spread rubbish around as they search for food.”
Some of the more unusual items located during this year’s clean-up included a discarded vacuum cleaner, fish trap, plastic bumper, tennis racquet, three metres of large plastic, 12 balls, six meters of fibre rope and 40 screws.
Over the past 32 years, Clean Up Australia Day has become the nation’s largest community-based environmental event.
Springfield Lakes Nature Care is a volunteer-run organisation which runs a range of local environmental programs throughout the year.
To help it fund these programs, the group has its own container exchange ID number (C10002285) for anyone who would like to donate their eligible cans and bottles.
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