Passionate locals needed to keep beaches clean

And we need your help again for the 2020-21 program, which is even more ambitious, but achievable with the support of locals passionate about reducing litter in the environment.

The number of rubbish bins placed along Cockburn’s beaches has increased from the 15 in last year’s successful trial, to 36 with more to be added if the need arises.

Last summer, bins were placed along the coast between Coogee Beach Surf Life Saving Club and the stairs south of the Omeo Wreck. The 120 litre bins will now extend from C.Y. O’Connor Beach to Woodman Point until April 2021.

Clean Ocean Cuppas has also kicked off again, rewarding people who collect a bucket of litter from the beach with a free coffee, soft drink or ice cream from one of six participating local cafes.

Loyalty cards are available and a $100 gift voucher is up for grabs to whoever collects the most litter.

This competition runs until 1 March 2021, so get into Beachpoint Café, Bistro 21, The Grind Reaper, Dome Port Coogee, Surfing Lizard Café or Woodman Point Kiosk for a bucket to fill and a rewarding refreshment. Clean Ocean Clean Catch is a new addition to the City’s suite of summer rubbish removal initiatives.

It focuses on funding more beach bins and multilingual educational signage near popular fishing haunts along the Cockburn coast to encourage fishers and other beach visitors bin their rubbish before it ends up in the ocean and surrounding dunes.

The City will use a $5,000 Keep Australia Beautiful Council (KABC) grant to help implement the litter reduction program, which follows on from the $4,145 2019-20 KABC grant the City used to run Clean Ocean Cuppas, which binned 6,000 litres of rubbish.

As always the City hopes locals will continue supporting the national Take 3 for the Sea campaign which encourages community members to pick up and bin three pieces of rubbish every time they’re out and about.

City of Cockburn Waste Education Coordinator Clare Courtauld said establishing habits was the most effective way to change behaviours in the long term.

“By encouraging people to pick up litter every time they’re out and about, they will hopefully become more aware of rubbish and establish litter collection as a lifelong habit,” Ms Courtauld said.

Don’t forget to show off your rubbish collection on social media by using the hashtags #cleanoceancuppas #cityofcockburn #take3forthesea and #cleanoceancleancatch and inspire others to protect our coastal ecosystem.

For more information, visit the Clean Ocean Cockburn page opens in a new windowon the City's website. 

Caption: City of Cockburn Community Waste Education Officers Alana and Julian will be among a team emptying bins along the Cockburn coast this summer.