Discarded shopping trolley clean-up in Tweed

Discarded shopping trolleys and other debris in the Tweed River will be cleaned up by Southern Cross University staff, students, and community volunteers this weekend.

“The plastic released into the water as shopping trolleys break down, the environmental cost of producing trolleys, the financial cost to the community from their loss, the risk to swimmers and bathers, and other ongoing environmental problems, all highlight the need for urgent action on this issue,” said Simon Hartley, Southern Cross University associate lecturer and diving officer in the School of Environmental Science and Management.

Simon is working with members of the Byron Underwater Research Group (BURG) to help tackle the problem head-on with a large-scale clean-up of the Tweed River this weekend.

Clean-up work began last weekend with the removal of 41 trolleys (and a range of other debris) from the Tweed River. The project will culminate this weekend with another large clean-up effort being held as part of the PADI Project Aware International Clean-up Day activities on Sunday, September 20.

BURG is sponsored by an Australian Government Coastcare grant and this event is supported by Woolworths Limited, Big W, Target and Trolley Tracker.

Trolley Tracker, has secured and coordinated sponsorship and support for the event from local retailers. Woolworths Ltd has funded a large skip for the removal of the discarded trolleys and the store managers from the Tweed City and Tweed Heads stores will be providing a BBQ for volunteers on September 20.

In July, at the beginning of the clean-up project, Simon Hartley and Michael Bugden, a SCU staff member from the Tweed Heads campus, undertook a survey of waterways adjacent to the Tweed Heads town centre, in the Tweed River and Terranora Inlet.

The location of trolleys in the waterways was recorded on a GPS and later transferred into a geographic information system (GIS) for analysis and mapping purposes.

Up to 50 trolleys were located during this survey along with bicycles, chairs, nets and a range of other debris. Most of the trolleys were found to be adjacent to public jetties and walkways close to the town centre.

There was a particularly large cluster of trolleys, bicycles and other large items along a rock wall between Dry Dock Road and the Minjungbal Drive Bridge (adjacent to Faux Park and the border inspection station). The survey also located a very large number of drink bottles and cans between Florence Street and the entrance to Terranora Inlet in the main channel of the Tweed River.

A number of volunteer groups and individual divers got together to begin the clean-up campaign. BURG is one of the major groups that have undertaken the clean-up work. BURG is a group of university academics, current and former students from Southern Cross University, teachers and students from local high schools and other interested divers from the Byron region.

“The volume of debris collected by volunteers during cleanups is staggering considering the small amount of time involved for most cleanups and the limited area being searched,” Simon said.

“Rivers are the major source of plastics and other debris entering the world’s oceans. The debris collected during these kinds of events is just the tip of the iceberg but non-the-less important in raising community awareness and engagement with the problem.”

The PADI Project Aware Clean-up in 2008 netted over 400 kilograms of debris in just 150 metres of foreshore near the Jack Evan’s Boat Harbour, including eight submerged shopping trolleys (with several more retrieved from the river bank), two large truck tyres, a lawn mower, an illegal mooring block and chain, large lengths of plastic pipe, plastic bags, bottles, cans, fishing rods and very large amounts of fishing tackle.

“A great deal of resources (including the production of plastics and steel) go into producing shopping trolleys and any efforts that reduce the destruction of trolleys by illegal dumping will have positive environmental benefits,” Simon said.

“It is estimated that for every standard shopping trolley manufactured, 50kg of carbon dioxide is emitted to the atmosphere. As a result, for every 20 trolleys which have to be replaced, one tonne of carbon dioxide is added to the atmosphere.

“The identification of ‘hot spots’ will assist in the location and recovery of trolleys and in informing efforts to manage the problem by councils and supermarkets.

“I hope that this clean-up work will encourage councils and supermarkets to work together to find solutions that reduce the number of trolleys entering our waterways. This would have a flow-on benefit by reducing the associated financial loss to supermarkets and the community (the replacement cost of each trolley is estimated to be from $100-$150).

“I encourage people to call Trolley Tracker on 1800 641 497 or visit their web site to report abandoned trolleys before they end up in the water.”

Photo: BURG member John Davis (left), and SCU lecturer Simon Hartley with some of the 41 discarded shopping trolleys and other debris collected from the Tweed River during last weekend’s clean-up.

Media opportunity: Media are invited to attend during the clean-up this weekend. The best photo and filming opportunities are from 9.30am-11am on Sunday, December 20, in the Jack Evan's Boat Harbour, Coral Street, Tweed Heads. Simon Hartley will also be working with a small team on Saturday in the area around Tweed Heads Hospital and Terranora Inlet. Simon has available video footage of last weekend’s clean-up. For more information contact Simon on 0428 569 654.