Litter campaign gets down to business

The battle against litter in one of our region’s suburbs, is being ramped up.

Love Our Clontarf Litter Campaign, run by Pristine Peninsula, has called on Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC) to take more action over rubbish.

Les Barkla, from the group, made a presentation to the full council last week and met with council officers. He has now been asked to prepare a business case.

The main recommendations will be based around raising awareness of the issue and improve education and council enforcement measures.

It will go through Councillor Karl Winchester (Div 6) for consideration in the 2023-24 Council Budget and include:

• MBRC to join the Boomerang Alliance Plastics Free Places Program - a partnership between the alliance and Australian Packaging Covenant to reduce single-use plastic packaging and help communities make lasting changes.
• Targeted strategies such as litter campaigns, super weekend litter challenges, working with cafes and making Moreton Bay (cigarette) butt free.
• Council rangers issuing on-the-spot fines for littering.
• Expanding the Local Government Association of Queensland/Keep Queensland Beautiful training and insurance cover for volunteer Litter Waste Warriors.
• Fund and organise litter collection sessions.

Mr Barkla said 12 months ago he gave the report to Cr Winchester and Cr Sandra Ruck (Div 5), State Member for Redcliffe Yvette D’Ath and Federal Member for Petrie Luke Howarth.

“I was frustrated, nothing was being done,” Mr Barkla said. “In this site we are getting more litter than ever before - more than 12 months ago.

“It’s getting worse and finding its way into Hayes Inlet. Something has to be done about it.”

The Love Our Clontarf Litter Campaign was inspired by Sue and Phil Johnson who have been collecting a 240-litre bin on litter in the area every week for 10 years.

In 2021 a 100-day litter campaign collected 15,706 items from an area within a 2km radius of Ray Frawley Fields.

The top three item categories were plastics 5264, cigarette butts 4691 and paper/cardboard 2667.

The 2.8 tonnes retrieved reduced litter in that area by 45 per cent and was equivalent to 62,000 litter items per year.

Within that area, 10,952 items were found along a 1.6km section of Snook St, from King St to MacDonnell Rd, with the top three cigarette butts 4594, plastics 2091, paper/cardboard 1753.