MCMC and Friends of Merri Creek applaud your continued efforts to keep the Merri Creek and its tributaries liberated from the accumulation of plastics, polystyrene and other human made detritus that sadly comes through the stormwater drains, is purposely dumped or thoughtlessly discarded.

We are happy to announce that we can support individuals, one household or members from two households to pick up litter along the Merri or Moonee Ponds Creek as part of your daily exercise as long as you follow the current advice from www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au

This advice includes:
- Wearing a face mask at all times;
- Bringing your own gloves and bags (and a pick up stick if you have one) and not sharing these items outside your household members;
- If meeting up with others to do this activity, ensuring you meet in a group of no more than ten people from a maximum of two households, outdoors in a public place;
- Not going outside your 25km limit- you can check this here;
- Physical distancing of a minimum of 1.5 metres for others outside your household.

The support we can offer at the moment is:
- Bags and gloves for you to keep (contactless pick up is from Brunswick West and Brunswick East);
- Advice on safe sites to pick up litter and rubbish disposal;
- Instructions on including your picked litter as part of our citizen science project to reduce litter at its source;
- Education sessions for groups via zoom;
- A recorded Webinar on how to do a Covid-safe litter clean-ups.
- Julia will be running a Q & A session on Creek Clean Ups on Friday 6 November from 11am-12noon. Registration is essential - HERE (limited to 50).

Ten easy steps to becoming a Merri Creek Litter Champion (while following public health measures):
1. Pick a location on the Merri Creek, Moonee Ponds Creek or surrounds that needs litter removed (post a question on the FaceBook page or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you need help to find a safe location or to check if the location you are thinking of is okay);
2. Pick a date and time to go out with a member/s of your household or if alone invite a friend (physical distance);
3. Check the weather forecast and ensure the water level of the creek is not too high;
4. Read over the safety information on the Friends of Merri Creek Litter Collections page;
5. Take gloves and a bag to pick up your litter. (Let Julia know if you need gloves and bags -there's plenty available!);
6. Go to the site and take a photo of what it looks like before the litter pick-up;
7. Pick up litter as you exercise;
8. Take a photo of how the site looks afterwards and photos of you with the collected litter. Do a litter sort and upload your litter collection on the Tangaroa Blue Litter Collections app;
9. Take litter home and dispose of in recycling and/or rubbish bins;
10. Clean and store your gloves and bags for another day and let Julia know how you went.

If you don’t feel comfortable yet doing a litter pick up, you can still do these things:
When out for your walks, if you do see a large amount of dumped litter you can download the Snap, Send, Solve app and report the dumping there. This will get forwarded to the nearest council who will respond.
To keep up to date on the Merri Creek & Moonee Ponds Litter Clean Up Program (also known as the Rapid Response to Litter after Rainfall) you can:
- Subscribe to the MCMC Litter Clean Ups email list here;
- Like and follow @MerriCreekLitterCleans Ups COVID style Facebook page;
- Get familiar with the safety procedures at the Friends of Merri Creek Community Litter Collections page.

To keep up to date on the current health advice please refer to this website: www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au

We look forward to continuing to work with you to get rid of litter and continue the important work of collecting data on the types and amounts of litter within the Catchment.

Stay safe and see you soon 😷

Kindest regards

Julia Cirillo Waterwatch & Rapid Response to Litter after Rainfall Coordinator
Merri Creek Management Committee
MTeach(Sec), GDipEd, BAppSc
Office days: Mon- Thurs
2 Lee St, Brunswick East, VIC 3057, p (03) 9380 8199, 0413 080 385
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.mcmc.org.au
Acknowledging the Wurundjeri People as the Traditional Custodians in the land of the Merri Merri