By JONATHON HOWARD
THE garbage and human waste strewn across the Noosa North Shore was stomach churning for clean up volunteers over the weekend.
The clean up was organised by Surfrider Foundation Sunshine Coast, which undertake two weekend clean up initiatives every year.
Two portable toilets were found and campsites were left covered in broken glass from beer bottles tossed into open fires.
Clean Up Double Island event co-ordinator Aaron Horsey said the Saturday and Sunday initiative attracted about 60 volunteers, which was down from the expected 100 due to weather conditions.
“The beach was in better shape than our last clean up, (May) after Easter this year, but it’s up in the dunes where the real issues were obvious,” he said.
Mr Horsey said volunteers collected about 1.7 tonne of trash mostly plastic and glass.
“Overall, the beach at the foreshore was in good condition, but the dunes were a mess,” he said.
“There were two portable toilets left behind and we also had to remove one three-seater couch.”
Mr Horsey said camp goers were resorting to cheap $40 portable toilets, which recently came on to the market through camping outlets.
“It’s one thing to buy these cheap toilets for camping, but just because it was cheap doesn’t mean you can just abandon it for someone else to clean up,” he said.
Discussions are already underway about new ideas including the possibility of installing temporary toilets during peak holiday periods, as was successfully trialed on Fraser Island.
Noosa Today has spoken with National Parks regarding the idea of temporary toilets as well as trash issues, and a response was expected by next week.
Mr Horsey said the clean up initiative was supported by a number of raffles to get the kids involved.
“For each full bag of rubbish collected, we gave collectors a raffle ticket,” he said.
“The initiative attracted a lot of kids and it was great to see the kids working so hard to clean up the beach.”
To find out more, or to get involved with Surfrider Foundation, email surfridersunshinecoast@gmail.com
