Cleaning Up Our Beaches

Like most Australians, many of our holidays are spent by the coast and we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to beautiful beaches and spectacular coastline in Australia. Whether you spend time in the water or simply taking a stroll along the beach it sadly doesn’t take long to find some rubbish.

Usually it’s just the odd bit of rubbish left behind carelessly by beachgoers or sometimes washed up from boats or jetty users, but when I find some rubbish on a beach, a saying always comes to my mind – Take3 for the sea. A great catchphrase and reminder to actively be aware of, and pick up anything that doesn’t belong on a beach.

Take 3 for the Sea is an Australian born movement which is building a global community of people connected to the planet and in particular the ocean. The purpose of the movement is to educate and inspire participation to stop plastic pollution from killing wildlife, by reminding people to take 3 pieces of rubbish with you when you leave the beach, waterway or anywhere really.

The inspiration behind the group is the plight of the marine turtle which is being devastated by plastic pollution due to entanglement in debris, contamination of their food chain and by the consumption of soft plastics which can be mistaken for jellyfish, a main source of food for turtles.

On our last road trip around Eyre Peninsula in South Australia I was really shocked by how much rubbish I found on some pretty secluded beaches. Sadly most of it was hard plastic pieces including plastic bottle tops, packing tape, rope and assorted small sharp bits of plastic that would never break down.

On some beaches it only took a short stroll to find more than could be carried in your hands and in more than one case there were pieces that could only be dragged away from the water, to a place where they wouldn’t end up in the water again.

Sadly an estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean every year with some of the biggest culprits being single use plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic straws, coffee cups, and plastic packaging.

We can try to play a part in the solution by refusing plastic bottles and purchasing reusable drink bottles, taking reusable bags when we shop including for fruit and vegetables, stop using straws altogether or only use sustainably sourced paper alternatives, and by taking your own reusable coffee cup to cafes. In general we can try consciously avoiding buying plastic wrapped items at the supermarket as much as possible and reusing or recycling as much as possible.

For more information see the Take3 for the sea Facebook page here.

And of course…Take3 for the sea, whenever possible.

Happy travels

Glenys

18 thoughts on “Cleaning Up Our Beaches”

  2. It doesn’t take much to pick up a bit of rubbish does it. Or better still, not to leave it in the first place. Boggles my mind how some people can have so little respect for our oceans and earth. But we can all do our bit. Great campaign and great post Glenys.

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  3. Fantastic post – by far the most frequent thing I see and pick up are plastic drink bottles, at least they are easy to see and pick up but there is a heap of miscellaneous crap on beaches and bushland. Sometimes I just despair, is it getting worse or am I just getting old and cranky?

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    1. 😂It may be getting worse which makes us more cranky, that’s my story anyway. Luckily in SA with our 10c deposit on drink bottles and cans I don’t see that many around but there was a lot of blue plastic amongst it. Maybe it was from plastic, milk containers. Perhaps we should go back to glass milk bottles again. 👍

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  4. I hadn’t heard of the Take3 for the Sea before, but I think it’s a great campaign and could be easily adapted to other natural environments too. You do wonder sometimes, after all, how hard is it to take your rubbish with you or at least put it in a bin.

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    1. Yes I think we humans all really need to be much more accountable for what we buy in over packaging just for convenience sake. I’m amazed when I think of the changes just from my childhood til now.

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    1. It feels good to be doing our bit doesn’t it. It can take a while to reverse habits but once you start, it becomes second place to take bags everywhere you go shopping, I always carry ones that fold up small in my handbag, but I often have to remind myself to choose the less easy option of not plastic wrapped items. Damn habits!

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  7. Well done, Glenys! Take 3 for the Sea sounds like a wonderful initiative to encourage people to care about our seas! In Ireland, we have initiative that’s widely known as 2-minute beach cleanup, and there are more and more people that take part in it.

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  8. We almost always take a bag to pick up rubbish when we walk the dogs. I find it so sad that there is so much rubbish around – as you say, in some really secluded places. It seems like a hopeless task, but every little litter pick helps!

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