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Northern Beaches Clean Up Crew
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You take the rubbish out - where's out? It's still on this planet, right? Picking up rubbish helps, but reducing your amount of rubbish helps even more. Say no to single use plastic - if you use it once, don't buy it! #northernbeachescleanupcrew #litter #rubbish  Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead ~ #northernbeachescleanupcrew #gooddeed  If we all switched to reusable coffee cups, we would divert 500 billion takeaway coffee cups from landfill every year. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #coffee #keepcup #plasticfree #takeaway #plastic  Pigeons, ibis’ and many other bird species get such a bad wrap! But the problem, as always, starts with us! #northernbeachescleanupcrew #litter #rubbish   Cigarettes are the most littered item on earth. Worldwide, about 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered each year. Cigarettes contain more than 7,000 chemicals, such as arsenic (used to kill rats) and formaldehyde (used to preserve dead animals, and humans, too). Littered cigarette butts leach toxic chemicals into the environment and can contaminate water. The toxic exposure can poison fish, as well as animals who eat cigarette butts. Cigarette filters may look like cotton, but 98 percent of cigarette filters are made of plastic fibers (cellulose acetate) that are tightly packed together, which leads to an estimated 1.69 billion pounds of cigarette butts winding up as toxic trash each year. Cigarettes don’t break down naturally, they can gradually decompose depending on environmental conditions like the rain and sun. Estimates on the time it takes vary, but a recent study found that a cigarette butt was only about 38 percent decomposed after two years. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #cigarettes  We found this margarine container on our February 2020 clean up. It says best before 02 Jan 1988 on it. Plastics don't biodegrade like organic matter, which means they can't be converted by living organisms into useful compounds for life. Instead, they photodegrade, a process by which photons from the sun's rays pulverize the plastic polymers until they are broken into individual molecules. This is why there are huge masses of plastic floating around our oceans and lakes, clogging our landfills and even leaching toxins into our water table. Grocery bags, plastic food wrap, sandwich bags, ziplock bags and produce bags are more troubling because they are typically used once - maybe twice - and then discarded, where - as previously established - they will wind up in a landfill or somewhere out in the wilderness where they will never biodegrade. And this begs the question that we - the consumers - must face. Is the ease of use of plastics like grocery bags, styrofoam containers or disposable forks really worth the cost? Now you know that those single use plastics cannot decompose, what are you going to do about it? #northernbeachescleanupcrew #beachcleanup #plastic #saynotoplastic #plasticpollutes  Local legend Sarah has created a kids party kit to try to cut down on the disposable elements of children’s parties. The kit contains: 16 dinner plates 16 cake plates 16 sets of cutlery 16 tumblers 1 large melamine bowl 1 ceramic cake stand 1 bamboo/ceramic dip/snack serving set 1 white cotton tablecloth 1 rainbow fabric table runner 3 coloured tea light holders Tea light candles Birthday badge She asks for a $20 deposit when you collect it and you can choose to donate any amount, if you wish, to the upkeep of the box. If you have a kids party coming up please email her at sarah.peachman1@gmail.com to arrange collection. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plasticfree  Hobart is set to say goodbye to single-use plastics, after the council voted to enforce its ban on non-compostable food packaging from next year, becoming the first city in Australia to do so. The Hobart City Council's ban tackles non-compostable takeaway food packaging, which according to the Environment Protection Authority Tasmania, makes up about 50 per cent of the city's rubbish. It was estimated that the ban would take 10 million bits of single-use plastic out of the waste stream and litter stream every year in Hobart. The ban includes, but is not limited to, tubs and lids, cups and cup lids, utensils, including cutlery, stirrers and straws, sachets and packets. Yes, even the soy sauce fish is on its way out. It does not, however, mean the end of containers, straws or utensils, all of these can be substituted with compostable packaging. While it's not considered to be the ultimate solution to litter, compostable packaging is able to break down in the environment, particularly when disposed of properly. Council research found that about a third of Hobart's 300 businesses were already using some form of compostable packaging, and the hope, said Cr Harvey, was that this by-law would nudge the rest to make the change. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plasticfree  A new study by the University of Newcastle in Australia has found that in average, people ingest 5 grams of plastic every week, or 2,000 microplastic particles. That's the equivalent of eating a credit card.  Be consumer wise. This is Coles making you pay a lot of extra for that plastic packaging. Bring your own veggie bags and buy some loose chilis instead. Better for your wallet and for the environment. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plasticfree   We would love your support so we can buy some more pickers and gumboots and hopefully one day a trailer. If you'd like to support us scan this bar code at the "Return & Earn" machines and click PayOut and your bottles and cans will contribute to our cause: community engagement, litter reduction, good deeds and friendships.
. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #returnandearn #loveManly #Manlybeach #plasticfree #beachcleanup #community #friends  Hot cross buns (do we need these in February?) individually packed in single-use plastic containers. What do you think?
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic  Sea turtles are affected by plastic during every stage of their life. They crawl through plastic on the way to the ocean as hatchlings, swim through it while migrating, confuse it for jellyfish (one of their favorite foods), and then crawl back through it as adults. Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales, and other marine mammals, and more than 1 million seabirds die each year from ocean pollution and ingestion or entanglement in marine debris. Most trash reaches the seas via rivers, and 80% originates from landfills and other urban sources.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic #turtle  90% of the cost of bottled water is the bottle itself and 80% of these plastic bottles never get recycled - they end up in landfill were they break down to thousands and thousands of plastic pieces over hundreds of years. Studies show that the toxins decomposing bottles of water leach into our environment cause a variety of health issues, including reproductive problems and cancer. Ditch the habit: Make sure to stock your home with plenty of reusable stainless steel water bottles that will improve the environment and your health.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #water #plasticfree #plastic So proud to be part of the crew and meeting so many kind people. We sure have made friends for life by picking up litter. Thank you legends who came to the Australia Day clean up. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #beachcleanup #litter #trash #plastic #plasticfree #friends  If Ikea can do it and many fast food places in other countries can do it, why can't it be done in Australia? 🤔 #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic   A cash-for-cans and bottles scheme to combat Victoria’s recycling and waste crisis will be introduced by the state government. The reward program collects drink bottles and cans from commercial industry and consumers, who could recoup 10¢ per drink by returning containers to a drop-off point. The scheme will be made public within the month, but it won’t be operational until 2023. Victoria had been the only state or territory in Australia without a container deposit scheme or a plan to introduce one, but government insiders have confirmed an announcement is imminent. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plasticfree  This gives us hope for large events! Thanks to partners of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, a small group of motivated individuals made a HUGE difference for the waste reduction of this massive USA event. Also, we think it brought attention to 'the issue with disposables' to many that may have not been educated on the topic before. Great job to all involved in helping make this happen and hope to see more events follow suit in the future all around the world. It can be done! #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plasticfree  Ultra run events are long - at least 25 km and they refuse to have cups on the course. The runners must take responsibility for their owm water intake. The Northern Beaches Council organised together with Manly Surf Club a 7-10 km run last weekend. It was a very hot day and many single-use cups with water were provided for the runners. Do you think it's the participants responsibility or the council's responsibility to make sure people are hydrated? Thoughts? #northernbeachescleanupcrew #saynotosingleuse #swapforgood  A normal single use coffee cup has a thin polyethylene lining to make it water resistant. They are not biodegradable. Some researchers in the Philippines have come up with a single use coffee cup made from pineapple leaves. They don't use any plastic at all and called their product "Pinyapel" meaning pineapple and paper. After you finished your coffee it can be put in the compost. A great intervention- even greater would be if people started to use their reusable cups more. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plasticfree  |
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