Probably the strangest item found during this year's Clean Up Australia Day – a kitchen sink – might raise some eyebrows but volunteers say that when it comes to what's turning up in Eurobodalla's bushland, parks and beaches nothing can surprise them anymore.
The 42 official Clean Up sites across the shire saw the community roll up its collective sleeve to collect more than 188 bags of litter and a further 28 cubic metres of dumped bulky items. To support local volunteers, Council's waste team handed out gift vouchers for local services and businesses, at a total value of over $3,000.
With preliminary numbers in, volunteers are reporting overall less litter at their usual haunts compared to last year, and Eurobodalla Council's manager of waste services Nathan Ladmore says community attitudes are slowly shifting.
"The most common items were soft plastics, glass bottles, aluminium cans, clothing, food wrappers and cigarette butts. However we did have reports that litter in bushland areas was up," Mr Ladmore says.
"That's a shame as most of these items can be recycled and bulky items – furniture washing machines, tyres, building and construction waste, mattresses, sinks, shopping trolleys and pushbikes – continue to be a problem."
Mr Ladmore says illegal dumping is costing the community.
"The amount of illegally dumped bulky-waste items collected this year is the equivalent of 14 households putting out their allocated two-cubic-metres of free annual hard-waste pickup. Instead they chose to dump it in national parks, creeks and rivers, state forest and town reserves," he says.
"We've recently secured funding from the Environment Protection Authority to strengthen Council's work around illegal dumping, so we can target problem areas and provide more education around legal disposal options. That's things like Return and Earn, soft plastics recycling, and our annual hard waste collection.
"It's really hard to believe in this day and age people are still tossing their cigarette butts."
Across the nation, Clean Up is run on the first Sunday in March and is Australia's largest environment-themed event. Over three decades since it began, 23 million Australians have taken part. It's future in Eurobodalla looks bright thanks to the shire's next generation.
Eurobodalla Mayor Mathew Hatcher joined students from Narooma Public School at Rotary Park for the Schools Clean Up Day on Friday 27 February, with Council staff lending a hand at Moruya Public School.
"With more than 2,000 local daycare, preschool, primary and high school students taking part, you can't help but feel optimistic. They're enthusiastic, they're engaged and they're leading by example. If that attitude sticks, Eurobodalla's environment is in very good hands," says the Mayor.
