Climate activist's 'ironic' act as plastic protest signs found dumped on street
A large pile of plastic 'climate action' signs were spotted dumped on a Melbourne street and are likely headed for landfill.
A Melbourne local has addressed the "sad" irony of a pile of climate-change activist signs found dumped on a city street, and likely headed for landfill.
The puzzled person spotted the large stack of 'Climate Action Now' plastic signs on what is understood to be High Street in the inner-city suburb of Prahran, and took to social media to share their discovery.
"The fact that these were left out for hard rubbish, going to a tip, is a sad bit of irony," they said on Reddit. "They looked straight out the box, never touched. How unfortunate."
Where did the climate signs come from?
The yellow signs made of Corflute, a type of plastic, were distributed to 120,000 people as part of the Australian Conservation Foundation's (ACF) initiative to protest the government's use of coal and gas emissions ahead of the 2022 federal election.
"People put them up on their front fences and in their windows to show they were concerned about climate change and were prepared to vote for candidates who promised better climate policies than what we experienced during the nine years of Coalition government," a spokesman of ACF told Yahoo News Australia.
"A lot of the Climate Action Now signs are still on people’s fences and in their windows because obviously the message is still as relevant and urgent as ever.
The spokesman did not know who was specifically responsible for the pile of signs discovered on the Prahran street. He explained that Corflute is a recyclable plastic though "unfortunately it is not the sort of plastic that can be left in the kerbside bins that get collected by local councils".
"The manufacturer of Corflute, Corex, encourages people to return corflutes for recycling at the company’s facilities," he said, adding that the signs can also be reused to "make a new sign on the blank side, line a milk crate and store cricket balls in it".
Locals respond to dumped plastic signs
"Nothing says 'Save the Planet' more than a sign made from plastic," one person said, commenting on the post.
However others offered to recycle the yellow signs, even taking a swing at the person who posted the photo.
"You should lead by example and pick them up, take them to a place that will recycle them with the added bonus that you know you’ve done something good," another said. A Corex facility is located in Dandenong, 45 minutes from Melbourne.
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