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Northern Beaches Clean Up Crew
 Glitter is not only impossible to clean up, it also stays in the environment FOREVER! Choose biodegradable glitter made from cellulose instead, or make eco-confetti with a hole puncher and fallen leaves. We don't need plastic to sparkle!
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic  People are creating more waste than ever. Bins are overflowing faster and faster, partly due to all of the packaging food comes in nowadays, and partly due to not enough collection times. That is why it’s more important than ever to deal with it efficiently.
So, what can be done to prevent this problem with bins on a wider scale? Some of the solutions are quite simple, like getting more regular collections, or making efforts to reduce the waste you generate. As for more specialised solutions, smart solar-powered compactor bins are popular in many public areas. These can hold up to eight times as much waste as normal bins due to their compaction process, function through solar power to be eco-friendly, and have the technology to inform those collecting the waste when the bin is about to become full to prevent them overflowing! In smaller areas, smart fill-level sensors in bins are more appropriate in terms of spacing, playing the same role in monitoring when the bin is full. A monitoring platform can also be put in place to plan out future collections ahead of time, making collections far more efficient and costs being reduced by 50%. With new ways to use bins, overflowing bins may soon stop being a problem, hopefully bringing an end to the problems of large amounts of business and household waste as well. That being said, we’ll probably find a way to make more waste in the meantime. Will the Northern Beaches Council look at these options? Not sure, but we hope so. All these pictures were taken tonight, by Manly wharf, by the bus stop by Gilbert Park and by the main beach. . . #northernbeachescleanupcrew #bins #litter #rubbish #trashtag #Manly #beachescouncil #loveManly #Manlybeach Tired of seeing pictures like these? Stop buying balloons and tell your friends to stop buying them too. There are better ways to celebrate. Balloons are in the top three most harmful waste items to wildlife. Birds and turtles not only ingest balloons, they actively select them as food. This is because a burst balloon often resembles a jellyfish, the natural food sources of many marine species like turtles. Ingesting balloons, and the clips and strings attached to them, can cause intestinal blockages and results in a slow painful death through starvation. Marine animals don’t have the gastrointestinal pH levels to breakdown a balloon and for turtles, it may also cause floating syndrome. Trapped gases in the gut can cause a turtle to become buoyant, unable to dive for food—making them vulnerable to boat strikes and leading to starvation and severe dehydration. Balloons are the number 1 cause of death in sea birds such as Albatross and Mutton birds that have consumed plastic - google Lauren Roman doctoral thesis looking at the effects of plastics in marine birds in Australia and New Zealand to learn more. Wildlife, both terrestrial and marine, can also become entangled in balloon ribbons or strings, causing injury or death through drowning, suffocation, or an inability to feed and avoid predators. Even if balloons are disposed of "safely" they go to landfill where it may take up to 1,000 years to decompose, leaching potentially toxic substances into the soil and water. Why are some businesses still using balloons as "advertising fun"? . #northernbeachescleanupcrew #balloons #balloonsblow #beachcleanup #beachescouncil #litter #beachcleanup #trashtag #plasticocean #trash #literati #rubbish #turtlekiller   This is a NEW product - Free Range Peeled Hard Boiled Eggs that you can buy at selected Woolworths stores. While many other companies are looking at reducing their single use plastic for print, "Sunny Queen Farms" are increasing theirs.
The problem with plastic is that most of it isn't biodegradable. It doesn't rot, like paper or food, so instead it can hang around in the environment for hundreds of years. More than eight million tonnes of plastic enters the world's oceans each year and most of that escapes from land. Experts think that by 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean will weigh more than the amount of fish in the ocean. All animals, whether they live on land or in the sea, can be hurt by plastic. They can get trapped in bigger items such as carrier bags or food packaging. Birds, fish and shellfish can mistake plastic for food when it has broken down in to smaller pieces. One in three sea turtles, and around 90% of seabirds, have eaten it.They can't digest plastic so their stomachs can become full, meaning they don't have room for actual food. Each year, 100,000 animals in the sea are killed by plastic. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic  211 million kilos of plastic packaging waste was generated by Amazon last year! All the air pillows, bubble wrap, foam packaging and other plastic that they ship would circle the Earth 500 times, according to a new report from Oceana. Even worse, up to 10 million kilos of Amazon's plastic waste ended up polluting the world's freshwater and marine ecosystems last year. That's the equivalent of dumping a delivery van full of plastic into the oceans every 70 minutes! Most of their plastic isn't destined for recycling and instead goes into landfills, incinerators or just straight into the environment where it stays forever. That's just a few of the many reasons to stay away from Amazon!
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic  S.A. & W.A. = Single Use Plastic Bans
WA will start banning single-use plastics within three years.The State Government will ban plastic plates, cutlery, stirrers, polystyrene food containers, thick plastic bags, and the release of helium balloons by 2023. Other single-use plastic items like produce bags, microbeads and cotton buds will be phased out by 2026. QLD & ACT = Single Use Plastic Draft legislation When is it time for NSW? Plastic pollution is one of the greatest threats to marine life and wildlife around the world. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic  This is alarming that only 12% gets recycled and the rest either gets discarded into landfill, our oceans or burnt for fuel. The rate at which plastic break down, they will be around for many generations to come. So, do your bit to cut down your plastic usage not only for our present but for our future.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #beachcleanup How much plastic is there in a pair of stretch jeans? This much! "Permacoach" have been using their composting systems to experiment with some of the things that we ultimately contribute to the waste stream. This pair of stretch jeans would usually have been repurposed but they sacrificed them to the compost bin just to see how much of the fabric was cotton and how much was plastic. We now know that most plastics do not break down. Our disposal options are to burn them and release toxic fumes or to not burn them and have them persist in our environment, possibly forever, as micro plastic particles. These micro plastics are now turning up in the bodies of animals, including us. Their long term consequences are unknown. Our best option is to take good care of the clothing we already have and to refuse to add anything to our wardrobe until we actually need to replace something. Let’s kill fashion #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic #plasticfree #jeans #fashion Pic: Permacoach  Illegal dumping comes with a fine. Purposely doing it to cause harm to a native animal (bush turkey) is also illegal. The first photo was taken at 9am on the 13th of October on path between Sydney Road & Tower st in Manly. Sophie reported it to the council who have said they will sort it this week. By 5pm there was more junk on the pile . How people can get away with doing this in pure daylight we don’t know but we hope they get caught and charged a big fine. It is not only a nasty act but it is also damaging the local environment and making the area an eye sore. Bush turkeys are protected under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. Please report all illegal dumpings to the council immediately on 1300 434 434. Pic: Sophie Wilson #northernbeachescleanupcrew #litter  How much plastic is there in a pair of stretch jeans? This much! "Permacoach" have been using their composting systems to experiment with some of the things that we ultimately contribute to the waste stream. This pair of stretch jeans would usually have been repurposed but they sacrificed them to the compost bin just to see how much of the fabric was cotton and how much was plastic. We now know that most plastics do not break down. Our disposal options are to burn them and release toxic fumes or to not burn them and have them persist in our environment, possibly forever, as micro plastic particles. These micro plastics are now turning up in the bodies of animals, including us. Their long term consequences are unknown. Our best option is to take good care of the clothing we already have and to refuse to add anything to our wardrobe until we actually need to replace something. Let’s kill fashion #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic #plasticfree #jeans #fashion  We did some scouting around for litter last week and we found these in Dee Why Lagoon. How old do you think they are? Another evidence that litter doesn't "go away".
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #litter  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 #loveManly #northernbeaches #trash #litter Microplastics have been discovered in apples, carrots, pears, broccoli and lettuce, studies have revealed. The tiny pollutants are thought to have been sucked into plants roots with water, and then travelled up the stem into the leaves and, where possible, fruits. Scientists have argued for decades that this was 'impossible', claiming they were 'too large' to fit through the pores in the roots. Microplastics have previously been identified in meats including chicken, canned fish and shellfish. A separate study published this week found that plants containing microplastics grew smaller with shorter roots, reducing their yield and nutritional value. 'Today we're calling for an urgent investigation into what these toxins are doing to our health. Now more than ever we must listen to the scientists, not the plastic lobby.' #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic #microplastics  Disposable coffee cups are lined with a waterproof plastic called polyethylene which makes them non-recyclable and a contaminant. On top of that, these cups release methane gas in landfill. So in short, a non-disposable cup is your best choice! Many meat trays are made of polystyrene which IS recyclable, but small pieces of the product tend to break off and get mixed in with other recyclables, causing contamination. As a result, most councils don't accept polystyrene in the kerbside bin.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #plasticfree  Three Coles Express single-use coffee cups in the gutter on Raglan street in Manly this afternoon but as far as we know there's not even a Coles Express in Manly. This is again evidence that single-use coffee plastic travels with help from people, the wind and even storm pipes to end up in the ocean. It is estimated Australians use 1 billion single-use coffee cups every year. That's approximately 2,700,000 paper coffee cups thrown out every day! You make a difference today by replacing that single use tea/coffee cup with a reusable cup.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic   Broken glass is something we find at all our clean ups. Animals out in the wild often cut open their paws by unknowingly walking over broken glass. They can also be impaled by glass, which often leads to death. Another common problem is wildlife getting their heads or paws stuck in glass jars. Now authorities are keeping a watch on a treasured Aboriginal site in Allambie Heights after late night revellers smashed beer bottles and left rubbish near rock engravings created before European settlement. No respect for nature and no respect for The Elders of this country.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #litter #rubbish Pigeons, ibis’ and many other bird species get such a bad wrap! But the problem, as always, starts with us! #northernbeachescleanupcrew #litter #rubbish  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.  A disgruntled Coles shopper has lambasted the supermarket over excessive packaging on her latest online order, branding it a “blatant disregard” for the planet. The customer, from Canberra, took to the supermarket giant’s Facebook page to express her discontent over the amount of fruit and vegetable bags used to package her fresh produce, despite requesting to have no bags. “Having one onion or one lemon in a plastic bag is really not necessary and makes me quite furious about the waste and blatant disregard for the climate,” she said. However a Coles spokesperson responded to the customer’s post online, saying it wasn’t possible to omit plastic fruit and vegetable bags for “health and safety reasons”. “We can advise that plastic bags are essential to keep your items together during the shopping process, and are necessary for health and safety reasons with some products,” the spokesperson said. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #plasticfree   Fines for dropping a cigarette butt in the ACT will increase dramatically from $60 to $500 while littering a coffee cup will incur a $150 fine under the ACT Government’s rigorous new littering laws. Under the new laws that were passed in the ACT Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, small-items littering, such as tickets or food wrappings, will incur a $150 fine instead of $60. A framework was also introduced for escalating offences, where penalties increase according to the volume, mass or nature of litter dumped. Dumping under 10 litres of litter will attract a $500 fine, 10 to 200 litres will attract a $1,000 fine, while 200 to 1000 litres will incur a $1,500 fine. Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter on the planet, and have a significant impact on the environment, releasing toxic chemicals and microplastics. With a hotter and drier climate, cigarettes present a real fire risk to our bush capital, with 13 per cent of grass fires in the ACT started by cigarettes. The ACT Government currently spends $3 million a year cleaning, with Access Canberra receiving 1,178 reports of illegal dumping during the first seven months of 2019. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #litter  This is what was pooed out by a Magpie in Native ARC Inc. hospital this week. The bird was emaciated, lethargic and extremely unwell. After tlc and fluids the bird was able to pass the object. Upon inspection the item was a mix of balloon, plastic and rubber band. This is a great example of why balloons and plastic should never be 'released' and why we all need to take care in how we dispose of waste. The bird is recovering well but is one of the lucky few that made it to medical care. It is estimated millions of birds die each year as a result of plastic ingestion. #northernbeachescleanupcrew #balloonsblow #balloons   |
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