Clean-up efforts continue despite city snub

AN irate Dale Johnson called for a ban on polystyrene at Saturday’s #CleanBlueLagoon event. One of the organisations founders, Johnson, and volunteers concentrated their efforts on Blue Lagoon Beach for the latest clean-up. The Glenhills resident said despite a snub from the city at the latest council meeting which involved a motion from Shaun Ryley to thank volunteers for their efforts in keeping the city clean, he would continue regular clean-up operations.

“We don’t do this for recognition, but for the City to make this political and not allow a simple motion of thanks was just ridiculous. Some of the people who saw councillor Shaun Ryley’s article were so disheartened that they said they would no longer be involved in the initiative. What’s more, some have also expressed their frustrations in what they see as a futile operation without the City’s backing.

Check out our gallery from the event here:

“I’ve seen DSW trucks drive past and not clean-up the rubbish in between the pier and wooden fencing. Another frustrating aspect is the fact that bags of rubbish collected in the last clean-up, has not been collected. It’s still lying on the other side of the river which just shows the City isn’t doing its job. I will continue to pick up litter because I’m not giving up on a litter free dream by 2025,” he said.

Around 80 percent of the 67 bags of rubbish collected at Saturday’s clean-up was made up of polystyrene. Johnson urged the City to ban the polystyrene and styrofoam.

“The USA have done that now. Although the material is fairly soft, it’s incredibly slow to break down in landfill, which means it’ll be sitting there, leaching potentially harmful chemicals into waterways, for millennia to come. When polystyrene winds up in the ocean – it breaks down into microplastic which is ingested by marine organisms, which end up all the way up the food chain,” he said.