Clean Up Australia Day
Thanks to everyone for keeping our harbour beautiful
More than 57 volunteers gathered at Rose Bay Beach on Clean Up Australia Day, Sunday 2 March 2025, pulling on gloves and scouring our beaches, parks and waterways for litter. Together we helped protect local birds and marine life by removing over 67 kilograms of litter from our nearby beaches and parks. Less than a third of this material was recyclable.
Our most littered items this year were plastic wrappers and cigarette butts with over 1,200 of these items collected. Small plastic items cause significant problems for wildlife that mistake them for food. Another growing concern is the number of wet wipes we find each year as most brands of wipes are made from a type of plastic. This material gradually breaks into microfibres that remain in the ocean or natural areas.
Ocean sailor Lisa Blair joined our clean up this year and shared the results of microplastics sampling she conducted while sailing solo around Antarctica. "While I was expecting to find some plastic in the Southern Ocean, I wasn't at all prepared for every sample collected to have microplastics present," she said. Lisa mentioned some tips to reduce plastics in the environment including disposing of items carefully, installing filters on washing machines and buying clothes made from natural fibres.
In good news, some single use plastic items such as straws, plates, cutlery and take-away packaging were almost eliminated from our collection this year. We also saw an ongoing reduction in styrofoam packaging. The NSW single use plastic bans and Return and Earn container deposit schemes continue to have a positive impact.
Many other organisations and individuals hosted clean ups across our local area this week including: Scouts, Cooper Park residents, Cranbrook Preschool campuses, Newington College, and corporate groups such as Kearney, Suntory and MAX-N.
A big thank you to everyone who turned up on the day and special thanks to all those locals who pick up litter regularly as part of their daily walks.
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