460kg exploration in Aussie river highlights day-to-day ‘fight’ versus expanding issue

More than 460 kgs of rubbish was taken out of a significant Aussie river by 4 volunteers in someday today, and the consistent circulation of garbage reveals no indicators of slowing down in rivers around Australia.

On Thursday the team brought up to the Hawkesbury River, simply north of Sydney, to get rid of particles contaminating the location.

“If we see it, we grab it, we pick it up… we’ve probably got 60 kilometres of waterfront we cover,” Graham Johnston, owner of Clean4Shore, informedYahoo News “We pull 30 tonnes out of the Hawkesbury every year… we’ll easily get more than 460 kilograms in one day.”

Johnston deals with institutions and neighborhood alcohol and drug rehab programs to produce a prepared labor force to resolve the issue, and although it’s a purposeful education and learning for those entailed, having just volunteers to shield the river versus contaminants is much less than suitable.

“It’s a very hard battle… the impact of plastic in waterways is a worldwide problem,” he stated. “Plastic, polystyrenes, fishing materials… a lot of these will be ingested by wildlife. And if we catch the fish, we eat the fish, the small bits of plastic we’re actually ingesting

“It’s a negative, vicious circle,” he said.

The four volunteers smiles while wearing high-vis and lifejackets on a boat on the Hawkesbury River.

Unlikely source creating ‘big issue’ for river clean-up

The clean-up team pull a wide range of items out of the river every week — from plastic bottles to barbecues and fridges — but a never-ending source comes from ” abandoned watercrafts” situated in Brooklyn that are gradually washed away.

“Derelict vessels are our huge concern … anything that drifts after that befalls and they rot in the water,” he said. “The maritime [authority] aren’t claiming anything and the watercrafts aren’t on council land so they’re not a council concern.”

One volunteer stands on the rocks holding a large piece of metal (left) and another pulls a large plastic container out of the Hawkesbury river (right).

With no authority taking ownership of the issue, volunteer organisations like Clean4Shore are literally left to pick up the pieces — which is difficult with limited funding.

” 90 percent of our volunteers are senior high school trainees … we remain in a really difficult situation … even more demands to be done,” he said.

Persistent pollution creates ‘disheartening’ issue around Australia

The issue persists in other parts of the country too. Further north in Queensland, a similar organisation called Ocean Crusaders cleans waterways and foreshores in a bid to limit the impact on the local environment and wildlife.

Ocean Crusaders have been cleaning up the Brisbane River and nearby waterways since 2017 and volunteer Ian Thomson told Yahoo News previously he has seen an increase in the amount of mess littering the riverbank, believing the landscape would be ” amazing” if it were left untouched.

“[With the] quantity of rubbish, it’s not that quite … it’s discouraging,” he stated.

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