COMMENT
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On Saturday morning, I spent a good hour or so among old plastic bottles, soggy plastic bags, rotting coffee cups and other decaying bits of detritus (including earplugs, bottle caps, bags of dog poo and a dead rat).
Sounds gross, but I did so at the request of a friend and actually had a good time.
The event – organised by said friend – was the Illawarra’s first incarnation of Responsible Runners: a 30 minute rubbish clean-up that combines fitness with doing something small to help the environment.
Since September 2012, groups around Sydney and elsewhere have picked up over 21 tonnes of rubbish at Australian beaches.
In our small half-hour blitz at North Wollongong beach (which looked clean at first glance), we picked up 103 cigarette butts, more than 20 plastic cups, a dozen coffee cups, heaps of bottles and too many bits of polystyrene and plastic packaging to count.
As I said, the clean up was enjoyable, because even though it involved getting our (gloved) hands dirty, there was fresh air and exercise.
Also, walking local beaches is always spectacular, and there was a lovely feel-good buzz as other beachgoers shouted a friendly “thank you” as they passed by.
The eye-opening part was the part when we tipped out our rubbish bags onto a large tarp and started to catalogue what we’d found.
(The waste from Responsible Runners is counted, sorted for recycling, and the data is sent off to not-for-profit marine network Tangaroa Blue).
Looking at the mess in front of me, I felt disgusted about the amount of things that get used just once before they are discarded.
According to some environmental groups, as much as half of the plastic we use is for items used only once before they’re thrown away.
I thought I was doing okay by recycling, composting and keeping food packaging to a minimum, but knowing this – and seeing up close just how bad plastic waste looks once it makes its way onto beaches – has made me inspect my use of things like straws, takeaway coffee and, of course, plastic bags even more closely.
With the ABC’s excellent new show War of Waste now on TV, it’s gratifying to see a strong push to change some of our troubling behaviour and attitudes.
If you’re keen to shift your perspective on a local scale, look up Responsible Runners Illawarra on social media: there’s another event this Saturday.
The best bit is having a hot cup of coffee afterwards knowing you’ve worked up a sweat and made the beach a nicer place to be for humans and marine animals – as long you remember to bring a reusable coffee cup!