‘Clean up for the Hatchlings’ sees 400 donated malt bags reused in huge coast wide clean up.
The community focused event is held annually by the Sunshine Coast Council in partnership with Reef Check Australia, Unitywater and Sea Life Sunshine Coast.
Taking place at various locations from Coolum to Caloundra, this event brings the community together to clean the coastline in preparation for the hatchling turtles, ensuring they have safe passage to the sea.
This year’s event at La Balsa Park
After attending last year’s event, we were blown away by the passion shown by the organisations involved, as well as those participating in the clean up. We knew we would be back the following year, hoping to contribute even further to this amazing initiative.
Last year’s event, about to take part in the dive with Reef Check Australia
A sustainability practice that we are always pushing for is the reuse of our malt bags from Gladfield Malts. These bags are incredibly durable, easy to carry and readily available due to the amount of grain we go through every week brewing beer, making them the perfect clean up bags. In the past, we’ve donated these bags to organisations such as Surfrider for their clean up events, with extremely positive feedback.
With the help of Jodi Salmond from Reef Check Australia and Raeleen Draper (pictured below) from the Sunshine Coast Council, we were presented with the opportunity to reuse our bags for this year’s event. Obviously we jumped on the opportunity, donating 400 bags to be used at locations across the Coast.
Mcgarry happily handing over 400 bags for the clean up
We had an awesome day at the La Balsa clean up, sharing yarns with passionate individuals and joining Reef Check in the river dive clean up. Seeing the bags being reused in the best way imaginable was a special moment for us.
From brewery to clean up - our bags filled with rubbish
According to the data from this year’s event, 697 participants collected almost 500kg of litter from 19 different sites across the length of the Sunshine Coast.
The most common items were cigarette butts, single use plastic items (e.g. straws, cutlery & food wrappers) plus a large number of micro plastics.
What an amazing outcome that will no doubt benefit the hatchlings and many other animals that inhabit our coastline.
We will be keeping our eyes peeled for those cute little hatchlings over the coming weeks!