Call for action or "problem will get worse"

Two hours work by volunteers in a small section of Moreton Bay Region, has given a graphic illustration of our battle against litter.

Pristine Peninsula revisited a 1.6km stretch of Snook St and Clontarf Industrial Estate for the weekend’s Clean-up Australia Day.

Two years ago, in a campaign of 12 weekly clean-ups, volunteers collected and counted 10,952 items of litter in that area.

On Sunday they picked up eight bags with more than 2488 items of litter – equivalent to 22 per cent of their three-month clean-up in 2021.

“We actually collected more than that,” Les Barkla said on Pristine Peninsula’s Facebook page.

“So much of the litter was chopped up by contractor mowers (making it) impossible to get an accurate figure of these chopped up bits. Really disheartening.

“So, the litter from this 1.6 km stretch of Snook St is worse than 2 years ago.

“Until all three levels of government get serious about litter issues, this terrible problem will just get worse.”

Pristine Peninsula wants all single-use packaging compostable, $1000+ fines enforced, a national education/awareness campaign and resourcing for local governments to tackle litter.

The eight-bag Snook St breakdown was: 330 soft plastics, 162 food/beverage plastics, 110 hard plastics, two gloves, one shoe, 554 cigarette butts, 154 polystyrene pieces, 15 broken glass, 50 cardboard and 32 metal items.

Also a range of pieces which may have fallen from uncovered vehicle trays, 50 clothing and textile items, eight vaping sticks and more than 1000 bits chopped up by mowers.

Seven full bags were collected from streets in Clontarf Industrial Estate comprising soft plastics, hard plastics, 51 cigarette butts, glass, rubber, a shopping trolley and cardboard packaging.

Also “industrial bits and pieces”, car parts, two tyres, an air-conditioning unit outer frame. This was not counted.

Bottles and cans collected were taken to Containers for Change and the refund donated to Moreton Bay Koala Rescue.