5,077 cigarette butts, 98.1kg and 87 hands in Mooloolaba!

Another cracker of a Saturday spent scavenging the coastline. This time round, we were set-up next to the Mooloolaba SLSC amongst the eucalypts trees with the sunlight streaming through. We had 156.7kg of clothes, art, books, hats, belts and toys up for grabs for litter. And 150 delicious Stone&Wood Pacific Ales thanks to Joe and Lou at Good Bar!

But it was the toys that were the most popular! Over a third of the 87 hands helping clean the beach were little fingers combing the sand. We had one of the highest attendance of kids under 16 which we’re putting down to the overwhelming support we received from local green groups, media, Sunshine Coast Council and locals… so thanks for sharing!

With all your help we managed to collect an enormous 98.1kg of litter from Mooloolaba Beach, the dunes and all the way down to the spit. A space that most locals would quickly describe as “spotless”. But in just 4 hours we recovered 67.7kg of waste and 30.4kg of recycling. Awesome effort to Rachael Rourke and her troupe for keeping the back road tidy too (we’ve got a ProDive snorkel and mask for you to say thanks)!

There was even a trolley salvaged from the river mouth by Mark Harvey. He actually started scavenging with the sunrise and over the course of the day managed to pull in an astounding 34.8kg of litter alone! This super human effort has definitely earned him a swim with the seals at Sealife Sanctuary Mooloolaba.

We had some keen beans fighting for cigarette butts on Saturday (if you can even imagine that!). But Dylan Brown came out on top collecting 365 all up, and can now gladly go dive in the tank with some sneaky sharks at Sealife Sanctuary. It was a pretty awesome effort by all though, we collected 5,077 cigarette butts all up!

It was a challenge deliberating over the oddest item found but we’ve settled on Melanie Knack’s scavenged goods; a full tub of Nutella and a full tub of hair gel. Seems like a recipe for some European madness but whomever those tossers were not only did they waste a bunch of plastic but some valuable palm oil also!

Onto the bottles, those pesky plastic containers. 49 were pulled from the shores but Tiffany Gray made the best haul of them with a total of 12! Now she can head to Source Bulk Foods in Maroochy, jars in hand to spend $100 on delicious grains, detergents, chocolates and more – all plastic-free!

We hope Ruby’s got someone lined up because with her 9 coffee cup find she’s got a double pass to a romantic sunset cruise with Whale One. Last of all we want to thank Debbie Quirke for snapping her daughter Charlotte and Violet scavenging the sands, powering the bike generator and joining in on our no sew reusable bag workshop! We hope you all enjoy a family pass to Mooloolaba Sealiefe Sanctuary!!

Then there was the art! Biiiig thanks to Janey, Linda and Nelson leading the art corner of litter crafts; using everything from straws to coffee pods to party poppers to create some trashy turtles! They also ran a suuuper successful no-sew reusable bag workshop that got everyone cutting up old tshirts and tying their ends to make rad reusable bags.

Aaaaand last but never least, the vibe providers: Bri Green, Anrie Prinsloo, Jessie Taylor and Anna and Jordan, took to our make-shift stage to treat us with their talents! Guitars, violins and vocals had all us scavengers sorting, trading and tapping our toes…. Huge thanks to all of them for braving Saturday beach traffic!

It was nothing but splendid with the crew of awesome volunteers from the Sunny coast as well as Take3 and Surfrider. They were spread between the sorting station, working hard as the market merchants or spruiking their hearts out. As always – it’s not even a possibility without you all so THANK YOU!