The Hawkesbury Foreshore Clean Up Program hosted Father Chris O’Rileys ‘Youth off the Streets’ for another fun day in the mangroves removing bulk marine debris!
Two kilometres of foreshore and mangroves from the Freeway bridge to Milson Island were targeted for the day’s efforts, and once again this program showed how in need of regular maintenance our riverways are.
Like many section of river, this area didn’t look too bad from the water, but once behind the mangroves, deposits of plastic bottles and truck and car tyres were located and removed. The low tide made the loading of all collected items difficult, with deep mud banks to negotiate.
Twenty full bags removed, 80% filled with plastic bottles, mostly found sitting on top of the flood debris. Larger items found included a 100 litre water drum, three oyster trays, oil and empty chemical drums, five car tyres and two truck tyres. The total weight of debris collected hit 460kg!
This section of foreshore, including the mangroves was last cleaned in October 2012 so most of the rubbish found would have been deposited from the early March floods.
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