Cleaning Up And Clearing Out Pollution

They’ve pulled out fridges, a water tank, furniture, treated pine, buckets, polystyrene cladding, old bottles and loads of smaller items. They may be a small, not-for-profit organisation, but they have a huge impact on the environment and they did a lot of work immediately after the recent Hawkesbury floods.

Clean4Shore, headed up by Graham Johnston, teaches kids and adults to keep waterways and foreshores clean by giving them hands-on experience.

“We come out to clean the environment,” Mr Johnston said. “We engage students and young people to help clean our waterways. “Moving rubbish is great, but it is more about education.” Mr Johnston and his team have discovered that learned knowledge is better retained when the community has the opportunity to receive practical, hands-on experience.

That is why they have created a program that takes volunteer groups on excursions to remove tons of garbage from foreshores and mangroves.

Cleaning our waterways tends to be a slow process, with groups cleaning one day only to find that more rubbish has arrived overnight.

The small community-based organisation relies on grant funding to engage community groups, employ subcontracting vessels and transport and dispose of the rubbish collected.

Mr Johnston said that Clean4Shore was Australia’s most popular landcare program, an award it won in 2018.

The Regional Landcare Awards are coming up again shortly. Any schools, local groups, or businesses that would like to take part in an educational excursion to impact their environment and community, can contact Clean4Shore.

• Topics:

• Charity / Worthwhile Causes
• Environmental Issues
• Community