The big clean up of Lake Burley Griffin has revealed .... just how dirty we can be.
The volunteers found:
- mountains of construction material
- cigarette butts
- injection needles
- dirty nappies
- tyres
- lots of clothing
But the good news is that there wasn't as much rubbish discovered this year as there was in the annual clean-up last year.
The organisers wonder if that's because covid has kept people indoors or whether it's simply that the event is a month earlier - or whether we have become cleaner in our habits.
They are particularly dismayed at the amount of construction waste they found at the eastern end, on the Jerrabomberra Wetlands.
Tammy Ven Dange who coordinated the cleanup said she feared for young birds there if they tried to eat small bits of plastic.
She was waiting for the nesting season to be over so the volunteers could return and remove the rubbish.
This year, the cleaner-uppers didn't find any scooters or bikes but that may be because recent previous years have had much lower water levels.
"Last year when we had the drought we found so many things which had been there for ages," she said.
She said the oddest thing they found this year was a mouthguard in its case, floating like a boat with a snail in it.
What they found and where:
- Food and drink packages in lots of places
- Lots of construction materials and containers found in East Basin.
- Dog balls and frisbees were popular near the Burley Griffin Canoe Club, Black Mountain and Weston Park.
- Plastic sachets of sauces were located all around Lotus Bay.
- Dirty nappies were found in two of the locations.
- Sharps were located at four of six sites
- Tyres, milk crates and bread trays
- Lots of clothing
- Cigarette butts - everywhere
- Markers and buoys from various parts of the lake
- One disposable face mask
- One mouth guard in its container
