Speakers

Speaker 1 - S1 (Andrew Mellor)
Speaker 2 - S2 (Tobey Henry)

[on-screen text: Litter Action - Diamond Creek. Proudly supported by] [Melbourne Water logo] [Victoria State Government logo] [Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning logo]

[on-screen text: Andrew Mellor, Team Leader - Lower Yarra, Melbourne Water]

S1: We've got a couple of projects along the Diamond Creek where we're working with the Nillumbik Shire Council, the local community and community groups to promote and create awareness and education around the impacts of litter in our waterways, and in turn that helps support the habitat for the platypus.

With the platypus surveys that Melbourne Water has done, we've found that Diamond Creek has the highest entanglement rate with litter with our platypus populations.

[on-screen text: Tobey Henry, Waste Education Project Officer, Nillumbik Shire Council]

S2: As part of the Litter Action Project we worked with volunteers to run litter audits in the area to find hotspots along the Diamond Creek, and find the main categories of litter in these hotspots. 

And we found that there was a bin that was overflowing a lot, so we looked at installing a new bin that would reduce the overflow of litter.

[Close-up of new bin. It says: 'Did you know around half of the platypus that live in Diamond Creek have been tangled in rubbish?']

S2: The big belly solar bin has a solar system that senses when the bin is 70% full, so it will notify us and we can empty it straight away.

It also compacts the rubbish as it's collected, so that it can actually fit more rubbish in the bin and reduce the number of collections that we have to make.

There have been no overflows of litter since the installation of the bin, which has been great, and it saved us during the lockdown period because we have had a huge increase of people in the area and the bin has been fantastic for that time.

S1: In Melbourne we are so lucky to have these fantastic waterways and open spaces that we can enjoy, whether it's to run or walk or get out to nature.

And we can all do our part to make sure if we see litter to pick it up and put it in the bin, or if you want to do more you can join a community group, or talk to Melbourne Water about the various programs that we have, that enables you to improve the condition and health of our waterways.

[on-screen text: For more information please visit melbournewater.com.au/waterwatch]

[End of transcript]