Council gets the litter lowdown
Published: 30 January 2012
Cr Bradley on the banks of the Logan River
Almost 15,000 pieces of litter were removed from the Logan River last year as part of an important Healthy Waterways initiative.
The Healthy Waterways Clean Up Program, which deploys two small vessels, saw the clean up crew spend over 300 hours collecting litter from the mouth of the river upstream to North Maclean.
Environment and Sustainability Committee Chairperson, Councillor Lisa Bradley (Division 1), confirmed a total of 14,747 items of rubbish were collected from the Logan River during the 2010/2011 reporting period - an increase of 555 items from the previous period.
She said rubbish and litter negatively impacted on waterway health and acknowledged the Clean Up Program provided an essential tool to assist the city's waterways.
"The past three years have consistently seen food wrappers represent the highest percentage of collected litter, with glass bottles, cans, plastic bottles and styrofoam making up the rest of the top five," Cr Bradley said.
"Litter is a visually obvious pollutant resulting in reduced water quality. It has direct negative impact on aquatic fauna and birdlife, inhibits recreational activity, affects personal safety and creates navigational hazards.
"The ongoing participation in the Healthy Waterways Clean Up Program is essential to aid the future recovery of Logan's waterways and Council is committed to continuing its funding of the program."
Cr Bradley also confirmed over 16 tonnes of litter had been removed from the Albert River in the last year as part of a separate clean up program contracted to Wingbrook Marine Pty Ltd.
"On average 310kg of litter was collected from the Albert River per week," she said.
"This was similar to the litter collected from the Logan River - with food packaging and bottles again being the main offenders."
Cr Bradley said both clean up programs complemented the other Council initiatives which focussed on removing litter and debris from across the city.
"The clean up programs complement a number of catchment based and 'at-source' litter management activities undertaken throughout Logan by various Council branches," she said.
"Clean up activities regularly occur in Logan's parks and along roadsides. As part of the city's stormwater drainage systems, Council utilises Gross Pollutant Traps and Water Sensitive Urban Design assets which provide an essential role by collecting litter and sediment and filtering out nutrients that would otherwise enter Logan's rivers and ultimately pollute Moreton bay."