Photos show 'insane' Aussie problem after 2,240kg find in river
A group of volunteers have been left to clean up the mess, claiming council and the state government are both showing a lack of concern over the issue.
A group of volunteers scooped 2,240 kilograms of rubbish out of a major Aussie river in a single day this week, and Yahoo News was told the cleanup barely touches the surface with the sheer magnitude of discarded items in waterways around the country.
On Tuesday, a team from Ocean Crusaders — an organisation dedicated to cleaning up public spaces — got dirty in the Brisbane River and removed a raft of items from the water that had been tossed in there. Among the rubbish were shopping trolleys, wheelie bins, tyres and 11 Lime scooters which are a "very common" item to be discarded into the waterway.
"We've done eight cleanups recently on the Brisbane River... and in those cleanups, we cracked 10 tonnes of rubbish out of the Brisbane River," Ocean Crusaders Founder Ian Thomson said. "It's just insane, there's so much rubbish. It's a cesspit."
He explained the issue is exacerbated by the council and state government's seeming lack of concern, with the task left to his voluntary organisation instead. The operation was funded by an op shop and a local school "where the primary school kids got together and raised a whole heap of money" just to get the operation over the line.
"The issue of marine debris has been around forever, and it just seems like there's no commitment from anyone anywhere to actually put in a permanent solution to stopping it," he said. Yahoo News has reached out to Brisbane City Council for comment.
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Lime scooters 'thrown into water' every week
A recent addition to the Brisbane River debris are Lime scooters, with Thomson explaining his team are pulling them out every week.
"At night time, the kids get drunk and throw them in the water. It's basically as simple as that... we pick up some on the way out there, and on the way back, I could swear that more had been thrown in, in that time," he said. "I mean, to do 11 yesterday was phenomenal."
"The council employ these contractors to do it, and they're not making them responsible for removing their Lime scooters," he said.
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