The 2019 WA Beach Clean-up marked the 15th year of this special event in the Tangaroa Blue Foundation calendar, with support from Keep Australia Beautiful WA. Hundreds of people from across the community spent over 2,638 volunteer hours participating, from dedicated environmental groups to workplace teams, businesses, and groups of families and friends.
Since 2004, on and around the middle weekend of October, beaches, estuaries and coastal areas across Western Australia have been cleaned up and vital data entered into the Australian Marine Debris Database to contribute to understanding, monitoring, and managing marine debris. In 2019, beaches from the Anjo Peninsula Beach, Mungalalu in the north of the state to Kanidal Beach near Cocklebiddy on the southeast coast; to wild coastal tracks and easy to access metropolitan beaches were included in the project.
Tangaroa Blue Foundation (TBF) encourages a whole-of-landscape approach for addressing the marine debris issue. Different regions have different sources of debris and therefore different approaches to management will be appropriate. This year, data has been categorised according to land or sea sources for beaches that are either near to or far from built-up areas and for inhabited and uninhabited islands. By considering the litter and waste processes occurring across the whole landscape, more effective strategies can be developed.
For more information, download and read the full report.
