Surf club members spend thousands of hours volunteering each year – on patrol, participating in Nippers’ activities and organising sporting events.
The 15 Surf Life Saving Clubs on the Central Coast, from The Lakes in the north to Umina Beach in the south, have more than 8,000 members combined.
All those hours spent on the beach brings surf club members up close and personal with the increasing tide of rubbish ending up on our beaches and puts them on the front line in the battle against plastic pollution.
“I’m always seeing plastic bottles, toys and small bits of plastic when I’m on the beach,” Avoca Beach’s under-12 Nipper Matilda Harvey said.
“I try to pick them up and put them in the bin when I can but sometimes there are just too many of them.”
Take 3 for the Sea, an award-winning environmental organisation conceived on the Central Coast, is dedicated to reducing plastic pollution by encouraging everyone to help tackle the problem, believing that human-sized actions, like refusing unnecessary plastic packaging or using a keep cup instead of a disposable coffee cup, can add up to planet-sized solutions.
The group’s aim is to inspire people to see and understand the problem of plastic pollution and show that simple actions can help solve the planet-sized problem of plastic pollution.
This could include taking three pieces of rubbish with you when you leave the beach, waterway or anywhere; taking three actions to reduce your single-use plastic; or taking three people on the journey with you.
This year, Take 3 for the Sea is inviting local surf lifesaving clubs to enrol in a free program to help tackle the plastic pollution problem.
Participating club members will receive information about the plastic pollution crisis and simple steps to reduce their club’s single-use plastic, along with instructions for running beach clean-ups.
Take 3 asks that each club spreads the Take 3 message via their socials and newsletters to members and runs three beach clean-ups across the season.
“No one is better placed than surf club members to spread the Take 3 message,” Take 3’s program delivery manager Hannah Regan said.
“They are on the beach and in the water year in, year out, saving lives and teaching essential water safety skills.
“We would love all 15 of the Central Coast clubs to join our SLSC program and help us spread the Take 3 message far and wide.”
Clubs interested in finding out more can contact Hannah Regan on hannah@take3.org.
Source:
Take 3