Keep our beaches clean and pristine

OK, so the heat is on and the beach is packed, and at the end of the day what are we left with besides salt-encrusted skin and a thirst for something cold and golden? Litter. Unfortunately, as the summer holidays roll on, the amount of rubbish left behind increases. Apart from picking up the litter you see straight away and either putting it in a bin or taking it home to pop in either your rubbish or recycling bin, why not join the ever-growing group of residents across the Mornington Peninsula who are taking matters into their own hands and become a member of a Beach Patrol group.

The Mornington Peninsula Shire supports seven Beach Patrol groups, including Dromana/Safety Beach, Mornington, Mount Eliza, Mount Martha, Rosebud/McCrae, Rye and Tootgarook, whose members remove huge amounts of waste from our coastline.

There’s also a Litter Stopper phone app that has been developed by Beach Patrol and Love Our Streets and allows groups of ‘rubbish busters’ to collect data about litter and share it with likeminded people in a quest to influence policymakers to enforce change. It’s simple to use and means a record of just how much rubbish is clogging up our beautiful waterways can be viewed on the server at any time. You can download a manual recording sheet if the app is not for you.

All Mornington Beach Patrol groups have a Facebook page with relevant dates and times for beach cleans and general information regarding looking after our environment. Keeping the beach and water clean is not rocket science, people. Don’t litter in the first place, but if you see litter, pick it up and put it where it should be — not in our water nor on our beaches. Log on to www.beachpatrol.com. au/Litter-Stopper to find out more.