River rubbish under fire

The careless discarding of rubbish can have devastating impacts on waterways and marine life.

That’s the message that will be shared with participants at a workshop to be held later this month.

Hosted by Tangaroa Blue Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation that focuses on reducing and eliminating marine debris, the workshop will be held in Werribee on February 22.

Tangaroa Blue founder Heidi Taylor said a lot of rubbish made its way into local waterways and ended up as marine debris in Port Phillip Bay.

“Cleaning up areas like beaches, waterways, streets and parks is essential to reduce the threat of marine debris and litter, but this is only a band-aid approach,” she said.

“The only way of making a real change is looking at where rubbish comes from and finding ways of stopping it ending up in our oceans and rivers in the first place – a source reduction plan.”

The Werribee River Association’s Rob Bradley will be among the workshop attendees.

“This workshop is important as it highlights the need to stop the flow of litter into our waterways and ocean,” he said.

He said a clean-up in December along the Werribee River, near Prouse Place, saw an estimated 1250 kilograms of rubbish collected and carted away by trucks.

“If you want to be part of innovative solutions to stop rubbish at the source, don’t miss out on this workshop,” he said.

Details: srpworkshops.eventbrite.com.au