Sunshine Coast steps up to clean up

Clean Up Australia Day 2022 is fast becoming a month-long clean-up thanks to the dedication of schools, businesses, groups and our community all helping the Sunshine Coast to shine after the floods.

About 640 registered volunteers pitched in on the day (Sunday, March 6), with many more continuing to pick up flood waste and debris daily from local waterways and beaches.

Initial figures from the day’s clean-up show 3.8 tonnes – 90 wheelie bins – of rubbish was collected and 34 bags of recyclables – with more to come as many groups postponed their events and flood debris continues to show up on beaches.

Council crews have also been out and about across the region cleaning up the environment, collecting items such as pontoons and boats and we ask our community to report large items that may wash up over the coming weeks.

Sunshine Coast Council Environment Portfolio Councillor Maria Suarez, who participated in the Coolum Beach clean-up, thanked the community who stepped up to clean up.

“Considering the event was on the verge of being completely cancelled, our community and groups did an amazing job pushing forward and cleaning up an impressive amount of rubbish,” Cr Suarez said.

“The sun shining on Sunday helped encourage the community to come out and join in with the groups who still went ahead, and I was proud to join in with the group who took part in the clean-up event organised by the Raw Energy Coolum Beach.

“We picked up many pieces of Styrofoam from damaged pontoons which looked like pumicestone, other bits of plastic that looked like cuttlefish bone, and we even dragged a large piece of infrastructure pipe up from the beach.

“Despite the challenges leading up to the clean-up this year, our site coordinators were instrumental in providing local insights into their clean-up sites, including possible dangers and risks and whether the site clean-up should be rescheduled to a more appropriate time.”

Council proudly supported the event through the Waste 2 Resource program, by assisting groups to organise their events, and providing free collection and disposal of all clean up waste.

*This does not include waste and recyclable volumes from schools unless schools have chosen an area outside school grounds.