Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On World Ocean Day, 8 June, I met with the organisers of Plastic Free Avoca Beach and members of the community in Avoca and the surrounding areas to help remove pollution from the foreshore and beach at Avoca. This event was one of thousands of clean-ups that occurred across Australia and worldwide to recognise World Ocean Day. World Ocean Day is coordinated and promoted internationally by the Ocean Project and is officially recognised by the United Nations. It is held annually on 8 June and unites the world to protect and restore our blue planet.

Our event was able to collect an outstanding 11.5 kilos of rubbish from the foreshore and the beach. This included two kilograms of recyclable bottles and cans. Plastic Free Avoca Beach does amazing work in raising awareness of pollution in our environment and facilitating community clean-up events. I very much appreciated the opportunity to be part of its recent clean-up on World Ocean Day. As a community, we need to ensure we do the right thing by disposing of our rubbish responsibly, and I look forward to working with the community and with Plastic Free Avoca Beach to reduce pollution—and also to reduce the number of cigarette butts in our environment. These are the most littered items in New South Wales, with an estimated 1.3 billion butts in New South Wales every year.

Thank you Avoca Beach Plastic Free for everything that you do.