Students of Mosman High School Environment Group organised a beach clean-up on June 21st. It was a very successful event, and sadly very eye-opening for both students and parents. We had planned to clean from Athol Bay Beach till Chowder Bay Beach. This is a stretch of beaches and rocky shores that is part of the Sydney Harbourfront National Park but is very rarely visited, and is especially unknown to tourists although it starts right below Taronga Zoo. The beach beaches of Athol Bay were so covered in litter (mostly pieces of styroform and pieces of plastics) that it took us the whole day to clean them up.
The students (mostly Year 8 students) were very pleased with what they achieved and they are all keen to do it regularly. However, they also realized what a “drop in the ocean” this is if habits with regards to plastic usage do not change. It certainly encouraged them to raise the issue in November with the event they have planned when they will be distributing free calico shopping bags to shoppers in order to raise awareness of the environmental issues of plastics.
The students also collected and submitted data for the Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database.
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