'Clean-Up' Activities Around the Derwent Estuary
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CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY 2009 summary of ‘clean-up’ activities around the Derwent Estuary 1 INTRODUCTION The Derwent Estuary Program is coordinating a ‘Clean Up the Derwent’ litter campaign over the next two years, with support from the Australian Government’s Caring for Our Country. As part of this, a review was completed focussing on activities carried out as part of Cleanup Australia Day 2009. As a starting point, a foreshore litter database and website was established to document how much litter was collected from sites around the Derwent foreshore during this years Clean Up Australia Day. This information will then be used as a basis for future planning and to set a baseline for future efforts. The main aim of the clean Up the Derwent litter campaign is to improve ecosystem resilience through on-ground litter campaigns, reports/maps on clean up sites, amount and type of litter. Monitoring will include records and reports of the number of sites, participants and amount of litter collected. As identified in the 2003 State of the Derwent Report litter is visually and aesthetically unpleasant and constitutes a hazard both to human health (e.g. broken glass, used syringes) as well as to marine life (e.g. plastics and cigarette butts). The problem of litter accumulation along the Derwent’s foreshore has been cited as one of the community’s greatest concerns. There has been considerable community interest and activity centred on the clean-up of foreshore litter, through the annual Clean Up Australia Day program, efforts of local Coastcare groups, education, enforcement and clean-up. The Derwent Estuary Program has received a grant of $250000. Components of the grant include for example a survey of the extent and condition of Derwent seagrass beds and the condition of Derwent inshore reef communities and further implementation of WSUD. An important component includes the Clean Up the Derwent litter campaign and other litter campaigns, including reports and maps on clean up sites and the amount and type of litter. This will assist the Clean up the Derwent Litter campaign. The information from this report mainly focussed on Clean Up Australia Day, however information collated through this process was also included for Business Clean Up Day and Schools Clean Up day. Additional information was collected from Clean Up Australia Day regarding which schools and businesses were involved. CLEANUP AUSTRALIA DAY 2009 The national 2009 Clean Up Australia Day campaign was split into 3 categories Clean Up Business Day (Tuesday, 24 February 2009), Clean Up Schools Day (Friday, 27 February 2009) and Clean Up Australia Day held on Sunday 2 March 2009. Information regarding the sites around the Derwent Estuary was provided by CUAD as well as submitted from surveys provided by Councils. There was a total of 45 community groups around the Derwent Estuary for the 2009 CUAD campaign, which includes some businesses (CBA, Qantas) , State Government agencies (Dept 2 Environment Parks Heritage & Arts/Derwent Estuary Program), individuals, Coastcare groups & guides), 30 school groups and 5 business groups. How information was collected Information was collected from the six Derwent estuary councils being the Glenorchy, Hobart, Clarence, Derwent Valley, Brighton and Kingborough Councils. The information provided by Council included the national Clean Up Australia Day campaign, with Glenorchy also providing some information on rubbish collected for Schools Clean Up Day. The Derwent Estuary Program partners also provided information for thier Clean Up Australia Day campaigns including Nystar, Hobart Water and Tasports (through Aquascuba). Neither Nystar or Hobart Water appear to have registered with Clean Up Australia Day however they completed CUAD activities and provided information seperately. Due to staff changes and short notice Norske Skog was not in a position to participate. Questionaires (refer attached) were sent out to the main coordinating people at each of the Six Councils as well as Hobart Water, Nystar and Aquascuba. Questionnaires were also sent to Inland Fisheries who was also involved with CUAD but the information collected was in relation to sites further up the catchment than the Derwent estuary and therefore has not been included in this report. Separate information was collected from the Oakwood and Roseneath schools as advice from the Glenorchy City Council was that rubbish from these sites was not being directly picked up by Glenorchy. Overall there were 45 CUAD sites identified around the Derwent not including Business and School sites (refer attached map). Not all sites had data for example the Mary Anne Bay South Arm would be included under the collection for The Neck South Arm because it is understood that there was only one joint collection point for the council. Also some sites listed for collection points from the councils such as Stormwater Wetlands at Kingborough and the Derwent Entertainment Centre and the Faulkner Rivulet sites were not identified as CUAD sites but have been included on the map. The Derwent Estuary Program also excluded the information provided for sites that were not within the Derwent Estuary such as for example (Richmond) in Clarence and Bushy Park in Derwent Valley Council and also separated out the school sites in the information provided by Glenorchy City council. Rubbish collection in total & for each Council for the CUAD campaign sites There was rubbish collected from various sites around the Derwent. The methods of collection varied from skips being located at strategic points around Clarence to one collection by Council staff at Brighton. Rubbish collected was recorded either as bags, skips or other (refer table 1) but not in tonnage. Kingborough took rubbish to the tip site totalling the bags but without being weighed. (pers. Comm. Jon Wisby 16 April 2009). Hobart City Council also counted bags but did not have a tonnage figure because all of the rubbish was picked up as part of the overall rubbish collection pers. Comm. Damien Farrugia 23 April 2009). Glenorchy also counted bags but did not keep information on weight (pers. Comm. Bernie Mastrocola 27 April 2009) however were very open to the idea of recording weight next year. The Derwent Estuary Program also did a site for Clean Up Australia Day at the Regatta ground. This was collected as part of the Hobart City Council collection. 3 It is unclear exactly how all rubbish was collected for schools. However it is understood that some schools did remove there own rubbish. Information regarding school collection can be clarified better in the 2010 clean up campaign. ASSUMPTIONS FOR RESULTS In the Clarence Clean Up Report part of the community Clean Up Australia Clarence collected 230 bags of rubbish that make 1.2 tonnes. Using these figures then 1 Tonne of rubbish could be estimated to be approximately 192 bags of rubbish. Further to this estimates obtained off the internet 10 kg per tyre and 20 kg per Shopping trolley would be a reasonable estimates. RESULTS Attached is a table for all the results for clean up Australia Day. Table 1 shows how much rubbish was collected in total across the Derwent Estuary. Table 1 Total rubbish collected across all councils Rubbish Recycled Total Trolleys Tyres skips Ute Wheelie bins bags bags bags loads collected 574 103 698 4 72 2 2 3 Figure 1 Figure 1 identifies the percentage of bags collected by each Council. Clarence’s total bags have been estimated by how many bags would be in a skip. Clarence collected the most bags per Council even excluding thier sites away from the Derwent catchment. It should be noted that Kingborough and the Derwent Valley councils have limited sites on the Derwent Estuary. 4 Therefore in total there was approx 3.83 tonnes of rubbish collected around the Derwent. Green waste has been excluded. then it can be estimated that 698 bags would make approximately 3.03 tonnes of rubbish being collected around the Derwent this year. Further to this there was 74 tyres at 10 kg per tyre which would make a total of .72 tonnes of tyres. Shopping trolleys weigh approximately 20 kg which would make 80 kg for 4 or .08 of a tonne. Table 2: Total number & weight of tyres collected around the Derwent. Derwent Total Clarence Glenorchy Hobart Brighton Kingborough Valley Tyres collected 20 50 2 0 2 0 74 Tonnage (10kg per tyre) 0.2 0.5 0.02 0 0.02 0 .74 Figure 2 Figure 2 gives a break down Of the 3.78 tonnes of rubbish collected per council. Again it would appear to demonstrate the success of the Clarence campaign as 52 percent of rubbish collected excluding schools was for Clarence. 5 RECYCLING Figure 3 Figure 3 makes a comparison of how many bags were recycled compared to disposed of. Even though Glenorchy has been relatively successful with recycling with further calculations indicating that 33.91% of their rubbish was recycled compared to 18% for Hobart and 12.81% for Clarence being next best it is clear that further promotion of recycling of rubbish should be encouraged with the aim for further improvement on these figures. SCHOOLS CLEAN UP DAY Overall there were 31 schools involved in all by information provided by CUAD (refer attached). However the schools data did not come through the Council collection information and it is presumed that many of the schools must have disposed of their rubbish separately. It would be important to identify a way of collecting the total data for schools for 2010. The main information collected for schools in this report was through advice and information collected from the Glenorchy City Council. Glenorchy had a total of 4 school sites which had a total of 117 bags. Advice from Oakwood school regarding Windermere Bay is there is plenty of potential to collect more rubbish.