Stepping up to clean up

From the shore and the water, volunteers from the community, schools and Scouts stepped up to clean up around Hunters Hill on Sunday (March 1).

More than 65 volunteers were involved in two Clean Up Australia Day events, supported by Hunter’s Hill Council.

They collected 125 kilograms of rubbish and 30 kilograms of recyclables, with items including everything from a wheelbarrow, tyres and old carpet to plastic straws.

At Gladesville Reserve, crews donned hats and gloves and filled rubbish bags to keep beautiful areas of urban bushland clean.

At Riverglade Reserve, the clean-up extended across land and water.

The rubbish removal methods ranged from a gentle walk around the park with a rubbish and a recycling bag, to intrepid mangrove rubbish removal and even via kayak to pull plastic bags out of the water.

Hunters Hill Mayor Mark Bennett praised the efforts of volunteers.

“We are lucky to have so many active individuals and groups in Hunters Hill who are always keen to pitch in and help keep our urban bushland areas clean,” he said.

“Council works hard to keep the garden suburb we are known for tidy and accessible for all and it is great to see the community getting behind those efforts through important actions such as Clean Up Australia Day.”

Clean Up Australia Day is one of the nation’s largest community-based mobilisation events, and last year more than 680,000 volunteers removed over 15,000 ute loads of rubbish from the 6,901 registered locations across the country.

Clean Up Australia Chairman Pip Kiernan said Australia created 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste each year.

Only 12 per cent of this was recycled with the rest ending up in parks, roadsides, bush, waterways, oceans or in landfill as rubbish.

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