Cleaning up the north

CLEANING UP THE NORTH

MORE than 230 bags of rubbish have been collected by 300 volunteers during the annual Great Northern Clean Up, which wrapped up recently.

Cairns Regional Council coordinated 15 clean-up sites from Ellis Beach in the north to Goldsborough Valley in the south throughout the month of September, picking up 11,950 litres of litter, or 50 wheelie bins.

Soft plastics, such as food wrappers and chip packets,

were the most commonly discarded items followed by drink containers and cigarette butts.

Other items that littered the region’s parks and waterways included car bodies, construction materials, children’s toys and nappies, and batteries.

Cairns Mayor Bob Manning said the annual Great Northern Clean Up was an important event for the community and the environment.

“This year, hundreds of

and individuals have helped to remove 239 bags of rubbish from litter hotspots. When you add in the hard waste that was also collected, it’s more than a tonne of litter and waste removed from our parks and waterways,” said Cr Manning.

“The obvious benefit of the clean ups is that we have removed a large volume of litter from the environment that might have been washed out to the reef with the wet season rains.