MCMC's Rapid Response to Litter after Rainfall (RRLC) has produced a Litter Report that sums up our efforts in 2022. 747 participants at 71 events collected 94,418 pieces of litter. This litter was overwhelmingly made up of plastics – single use plastic bags and plastic food packaging.   

The RRLC program, which began in 2018 thanks to a grant from the Port Phillip Bay Fund, supports local community to safely remove litter from the waterways of Merri Creek. It has enabled expansion of the litter clean-up program run successfully for over 20 years by Friends of Merri Creek.

The RRLC program will continue into 2023, thanks to continued funding from Friends of Merri Creek, and Darebin, Merri-bek, Yarra and Whittlesea City Councils.We have expanded to the Plenty River and Moonee Ponds Creek catchments. MCMC provides residents and local groups with advice, equipment and support to organise their own clean-up events. Participants in clean-ups are also encouraged to document the types and quantities of litter found at their sites. This litter data is collated and is available on the LitterWatch Vic data portal.

2022 was a year of exceptionally high rainfall due to La Nina Climatic influences ¹. The high rainfall led to increased flows in local waterways. After heavy rainfall events, a large amount of litter is deposited on the vegetation and the banks of the creeks. The increased visibility of this litter saw an unprecedented level of interest in participation in volunteer litter collection events.

Litter clearly has both amenity and ecological impacts. Over 2.5 billion pieces of litter and microplastics are estimated to flow into Port Phillip Bay each year from the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers ². In MCMC’s experience, concern about levels of litter in Merri Creek is the most frequent ‘negative’ comment made about the condition of the creek by local community and other users of the Merri Creek Parklands. This has been confirmed by Melbourne Water which has identified the reduction of litter as a key objective for improving the waterway values of Melbourne’s rivers and creeks ³_. It has also established targets for relative ‘absence of litter’ in waterways. The target for Merri Creek is to move from ‘moderate absence’ to ‘high absence’ of litter in the lower Merri. Currently, the upper Merri has a ‘high absence of litter’. The target for the Moonee Ponds Creek is to stay at the current ‘high absence of litter’. The target to the Plenty River lower is to increase from the current “moderate absence” to “high absence” of litter. The Upper Plenty River target is to increase from the “high” to a “very high” absence of litter.

The three most common litter items collected at ALL sites, in order, were: 
- Unidentifiable plastic fragments and remnants (macro-plastics); 
- Cigarette butts; 
- Single use food packaging / packets (chip, snack and lolly packets).

References

¹ http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/updates/articles/a020.shtml

² Port Phillip EcoCentre. October 2020. Clean Bay Blueprint- Microplastics in Melbourne

³ Healthy Waterways Strategy 2018-2028 and report card. This is a Strategy for managing waterways in the five catchments of the Port Phillip and Westernport region