On Saturday 24th June SURG members will again be joining others in the community to conduct a marine debris survey on Coffs Creek. This time the survey will assess the impact of the Container Deposit Scheme which will commence in December 2017.
This event is open to any interested community members.
SURG and community members have been involved in a number of marine debris surveys and clean up events. Earlier this year SURG members and interested community members conducted a cleanup in Coffs Creek. It was an awesome effort by all involved and four sites in the lower reaches of the estuary were cleaned of trash. Each item of trash was assessed and associated information entered into a spreadsheet. Analysis of this data will meet one of the objectives of the Estuary Health Project being undertaken by SURG.
The NSW Premier recently announced a goal to reduce the volume of litter in NSW by 40% by 2020. One strategy to achieve this goal will be the introduction of a refund container deposit scheme (CDS). Under the scheme, anyone who returns an empty eligible beverage container to an approved NSW collection depot or reverse vending machine will be eligible for a 10-cent refund. A network of depots and reverse vending machines will open across NSW to receive the empty containers (see: http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/waste/container-deposit-scheme.htm). The CDS will commence in December 2017.
The National Marine Science Centre in conjunction with NSW Local Land Services, the NSW Department of Environment and Heritage and the NSW Environment Protection Authority are undertaking a state-wide program to assess whether the NSW Container Deposit Scheme has an impact on the number of containers found in the marine environment. Data from SURG’s cleanup earlier this year is incorporated into the dataset for NSW.
If you feel you can contribute a few hours on the morning of Saturday 24 June please contact Bob Edgar or email info@surg.org.au. You can also turn up to the event on the day to see how you can help out.
