Volunteers remove 50 bags of rubbish from beach

Minninup Beach received a much needed facelift last Tuesday as a team of Iluka Resources volunteers took time off work to lend a hand in the West Australian Beach Clean Up.

Fifteen volunteers spent the morning combing the usually inaccessible northern side of the beach and collected more than 50 bags of rubbish.

Iluka environmental specialist Frank Doyle said a second and third beach clean up took place on Thursday and Friday.

Mr Doyle said that bottle tops, stubbies, various plastics and rope accounted for most of the items cleared away and that everything found would be reported to marine health charity Tangaroa Blue.

“The West Australian Beach Clean Up is in the second week of October each year and Tangaroa Blue uses all the information collected to try and track the source of some of the debris,” he said.

Capel shire engineering environmental officer Rae McPherson said Minninup Beach had been suggested for the clean up because of its remote location.

“The area that got cleaned up on Tuesday is part of a closed beach. Only professional fishermen are normally allowed to drive on it but obviously what we’ve found is that there have been people going up there and leaving rubbish behind,” she said.

“We thought that might have been happening. Also, you get a lot of debris washing in out of the ocean, especially after storms like we’ve had recently.”