Beacon mosaic

Plastic bottle lids collected along the Port Melbourne foreshore - the blue ones are from bottled water. To see where these lids can land up, click here.

3207 Beach Patrol will be cleaning the beach on Saturday

will gather at Princes Pier/Pier St at 9 am on Saturday morning [14 April] to clean the beach. New people are always warmly welcomed. Recent rain has left the usual trail of plastic mixed in with seaweed. byo gloves, tongs and bag. Coffee after. I will be after plastic lids. The picture gives a status report at today's date of lids casually gathered over the last month or two. The greatest number, as you can see, are Mt Franklin bottle lids - another reason to give bottled water a miss.

Good Clean Up Australia Day

3207 Beach Patrollers gather for a well earned break after cleaning the beach from Pickles St to Webb Dock. Tom Burrowes displays the most unusual item he found - a conjunction of a plastic bottle and building material. About 12 of the large Clean Up Australia Day bags were filled. We learn more about our litter and people's littering habits all the time - many bottles are just conveniently dropped over the sea wall near the Port Melbourne Yacht Club. I picked up many a sodden cigarette butt as well as adding substantially to my plastic lid collection.

Clean Up Australia Day tomorrow - Sunday March 4

Don't let the wet weather put you off - it's when its been raining the beach needs you most. 3207 Beach Patrol is tackling all Port Melbourne's beaches tomorrow from 9 am. The 4 zones are: opposite Pickles St, opposite the London, First Point Beach [next to Princes Pier] and Sandridge Life Saving Club. Look out for the 3207 blue Beach Patrol t-shirt. As all our roads lead to the Bay, cleaning any kerb and channel near your own place will help. Last year I focused on straws - this year I am collecting plastic lids. I am told that lids are never recycled - so special care should be taken in disposing of them.

No butts

I know there are mixed views about Halloween in Australia, and anyway I'm a few days late but ... Sea Angels is a community group in Florida who pick up litter - just like 3207 Beach Patrol - and sometimes get pretty creative with it. How about this Halloween contribution made up of found cigarette butts?

What the storms brought in

Today we* investigated the raingardens in Dow St and the various tide lines to see what last week's storm had brought in - a predictable trail of packaging and fragments of plastic. The raingardens trap small items of litter such as all these cigarette butts so they don't ever get to the beach. The difference on the beach between those stormwater outlets with and without the raingarden treatment was very obvious. [* that was me and other 3207 Beach Patrollers]

Its a no no

to put recycleables into plastic bags and into the yellow top bin. Recycleables in plastic bags can result in a whole truck load of recycleables being rejected. This is because workers oversee the recycled material on a conveyor system, and plastic bags may conceal broken glass or syringes. Overfilling bins is also not acceptable - its like going to the supermarket and taking something extra off the shelf.

Extreme commitment to the marine environment

Jarad Kohlar and Clean Across Bass Strait have won the Pam Keating Environmental Sustainability Award at the Keep Australian Beautiful - Clean Beach Challenge awards. Congratulations! They paddled across Bass Strait. They picked up rubbish wherever they camped. 'The data will be entered into Sufrider's National Marine Debris database. The results will be used to educate the community and raise awareness of marine debris; trace and address the source of the debris in a non agressive, education based way; and to monitor the impact of marine debris on Australian locations.' The inspiring Jarad can be found down at the Sandridge Life Saving Club training others in kayaking.

Getting out there to clean our beach

3207 Beach Patrol cleaned the beach between the Port Melbourne Yacht Club and Station Pier this morning. Most picked up items were bait bags revealed by the low tide, straws, cigarette butts, the film surrounding cigarette packaging and bottle tops.

E waste - a growing problem

10 tonnes of electronic waste was diverted from landfill in March. This is three times as much as in March 2010. This upward trend will likely continue as people make the change to digital.

Please encourage anyone you know who is upgrading any electronic goods to take their old ones to the Council's Resource Recovery Centre in Whiteman St, off Normanby Road, or to book a free waste collection on 9209 6777.

A doozy of dumped rubbish

Spotted this dumped rubbish on the Boulevard yesterday morning. Dumping rubbish is an offence. The Environment Protection Act 1970 at section 45 describes the offence of littering and aggravated littering, and the powers provided under the Act. Council provides 4 free pick ups a year - so you don't need to dump - just dial 9209 6777 to arrange a booking. Having said that, it is not a reasonable expectation of Council to pick up this mess. You can help by reporting what you suspect is dumped rubbish to Council, also on 9209 6777.

The straw report 5

This is my final straw report for 2011. The straws will live on virtually when I talk about litter wherever I have the opportunity. On Thursday, I used them in a presentation at Frankston where they were reviewing their Litter Action Plan.

If you have ideas on addressing the straw blight on our beaches and in our bays, please let me know.

I tried to reference a pie chart here, which shows the major sources of straws being Macdonalds, 7 11, Hungry Jacks - I am not sure where the black ones come from.

People have had fun with this idea: the straw poll, the last straw . . .
Tackling plastic straws  like plastic bags - click here for more

Cleaning Up Port Melbourne

Tom Burrowes briefing 3207 Beach Patrollers this morning opposite the London Hotel. Group clean ups seem to be a good way to go. It's social and you feel that together you're making a difference. Picking up litter on your own, on the other hand, can make you feel overwhelmed and dispirited.

Clean Up Australia Day & Straw Report 4

Let's autumn clean Port Melbourne's beaches on Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday.

9 am start on the beach opposite the London Hotel, or at the Sandridge Life Saving Club

If you're busy on Sunday - maybe you could clean the kerb and channel outside your place, knowing that stormwater carries all its contents onto the beach and into the Bay.

We're going to count and analyse all the litter collected on the day and that will be a subject of a future report.

The straw collection has grown this week courtesy of another straw gatherer.

Raingarden

Following the heavy rains which have left their stormwater mark on our beaches, there has been some discussion about putting litter traps on council's stormwater drains. An alternative approach, a raingarden, is being installed on the corner of Dow and Beach St. A raingarden has the advantage of capturing litter and other pollutants before they even get to the beach and the bay - unlike at present when the stormwater gouges its litter laden way through the beach.

The straw report 3

Behold the straw collection at the end of week 3. Those are party poppers in the middle.

A Port Phillip Baycare coalition formed earlier this week resolved to join in Clean Up Australia Day by cleaning Port Phillip's beaches from Webb Dock East to Head St in Elwood. Every participating group would welcome extra hands because there is a lot of cleaning to do - just go to the Clean Up Australia Day website and enter 3207.

The straw report 2

One week on, and the straw collection is growing and I haven't really been trying. This expansion comes from two half hour collections between Lagoon Pier and Pickles St.

Anyone wanting to join in demonstrating the extent of the straw blight, please gather them and somehow we'll get them all together on Clean Up Australia Day on 6 March. There are several sites registered for Clean Up Australia Day in Port Melbourne.

I know many people are distressed by what the storms have left on our beaches so extra hands for Clean Up Australia Day are especially welcome.

On the warpath with straws

Yesterday I resolved to focus on straws when picking up litter as my 3207 Beach Patrol contribution. I intend to collect them whenever I am down at the beach and see how many I have by the end of the summer. This was my haul in half an hour on Sandridge [dog] beach today.

Happy to add any straws you pick up to my collection.

Come rain, hail or shine - not sure about this anymore

Although 'drenching' rain is anticipated, it will not deter the 3207 Beach Patrollers from their scheduled clean up tomorrow starting from Princes Pier at 9.00 am and moving towards the Sandridge Life Saving Club.

Straws are the number one offender in experience - what about for you?

3207 Beach Patrol is looking for members to help keep Port Melbourne's beaches clean

All this wonderful rain picks up litter and sediments that make their way via roads and drains onto our beaches.

Port Melbourne's Tom Burrowes has started up 3207 Beach Patrol - modelled on 3206 Beach Patrol in Middle Park - to encourage people to join in cleaning the beach they care so much about.

All you have to commit is half an hour a month whenever it suits you to pick up litter on a designated section of Port Melbourne's beach.

3207 Beach Patrol is starting out with an inaugural clean up this Saturday at 9.30 am on Port Melbourne beach opposite the London Hotel. Tom would love you to join him. Click here to sign up.