CHELSEA beach is a whole lot cleaner after more than 38kg of rubbish was collected last Wednesday (8 March) by the dedicated volunteers of Chelsea Beach Patrol and some enthusiastic school students.
Chelsea Beach Patrol is a group of community-minded volunteers who have the common mission of cleaning up the mess each month that others leave behind at Chelsea, Bonbeach and Edithvale beaches.
Zone manager Lucy Bonham, who is a teacher at Nossal High School in Berwick, took 44 students from year 9 to 11 to assist in this month’s clean-up, and says the experience was “eye opening”.
“The students were pretty shocked at just how much rubbish is left behind by people who’d rather throw it in the bushes than find a bin, or stub their butts out in the sand instead of disposing of them properly,” she said.
“Education really is the best way to change community attitudes and reinforcing the importance of placing rubbish in bins, or taking it home.”
Ms Bonham said most of the rubbish was plastic-based and included bottles, bags and lids.
“It really is sad to see that people can leave so much rubbish that has an impact on the beach and the waterways.”
Chelsea Beach Patrol collected 13,000kg of rubbish at the three Kingston beaches last year.
See beachpatrol.com.au/BeachGroups/3196 or call 0413 202 327 for information on how to join the Chelsea Beach Patrol.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 15 March 2017