World Ocean Day 2024

We ran a community clean-up in Hunter Park, Avoca Beach on 8 June, World Clean Up Day. This was one of thousands of events happening worldwide to celebrate World Ocean Day 2024.  We were delighted to welcome local MP Dr Gordon Reid, accompanied by his team, Jesse Corda. They both participated enthusiastically in our clean-up and helped sort and count the rubbish collected at the end.

Our volunteers removed 11.5 kg of rubbish from the park, foreshore and beach, along with 2 kg of recyclable bottles and cans. The haul included disposable coffee cups, single-use sauce containers, plastic bottle tops and soy fish. The volunteers also collected nearly 1,500 pieces of soft plastic, largely food, ice cream and lolly wrappers.

The resulting data was collected to contribute to the National Marine Debris Database where it will help researchers understand and solve the problem of marine pollution. We collected more than 100 cigarette butts in less than an hour in this recent clean up. They are the most littered item in NSW with an estimated 1.32 billion butts littered in NSW every year.