Sydney’s Randwick Council to crack down on litter along beaches

By JUSTIN COOPER

Randwick City Council is set to investigate methods that will address increases in rubbish being left on local beaches after busy weekends.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Greens Councillor Rafaela Pandolfini presented a motion asking council to develop a report regarding the increased litter left across the coastline. 

After visiting Coogee Beach herself, and receiving calls from residents of Council’s North Ward, Cr Pandolfini brought forth a motion that would investigate the current issues with bins on and around the beach areas.   

Ongoing issue

Speaking to City Hub, Cr Pandolfini explains she has been “contacted by numerous members of the community about this for a while now.”

“The rubbish issue becomes a lot more evident after busy and hot weekends,” she says.

“I am often down the beach early in the morning and it is heartbreaking to see plastic bottles, food scraps and empty vapes on the sand.”

Acknowledging the work by staff cleaning the beaches, Cr Pandolfini says the motion will assist council’s understanding of “what might be prohibiting people using the bins.”

She requests the report not only investigate the “location and quantity” of bins and relevant signage, but also the behaviour of beach-goers. The report will hopefully indicate methods to resolve the issue, with Cr Pandolfini noting a potential social media campaigns to help “remind and encourage” visitors.

“The resolution will hopefully be broad enough to capture everything that can be done to both mitigate rubbish ending up on the sand in the water and assist the community to be able take more care with their rubbish,” Cr Pandolfini continues.

Community concerns

Local resident and frequent beach-goer Georgie Findlay told City Hub that the beaches would benefit from more rubbish bins and potential policing to help “mitigate the problem [over the] weekends.”

Findlay explained that the issue is not typically seen throughout the week but is rather an ongoing problem over the weekend from visitors of the beaches and its surroundings precincts. 

“Many beach-goers, especially coming up to summer cause the bins to be filled quite quickly,” said Findlay, noting the amount of waste which can come from takeout food packaging from around the area. 

“Also the overflowing bins from the day are only being made worse by visitors in the evening. Large amounts of rubbish are around the bins and on the street which is from people going to McDonald’s after a night out at Coogee Bay hotel and the Coogee Pavilion,” she continued. 

A spokesperson from local community action group Plastic Free Coogee told City Hub that whilst they have not seen a particular increase, warm weather and additional beach-goers cause more rubbish to be left behind. 

Additional bins and signage would help encourage people to take care of the area, the spokesperson acknowledged. 

Supported by council

During council’s discussion of the motion, Labor Cr Danny Said described similar issues with overflowing bin bags on beaches, which have spread across the sand at multiple beach locations, and sometimes into the ocean.

The director of Randwick City Services expressed that there are multiple bin bag locations across council beach areas, with Cr Said questioning the effectiveness of bags along the sand.

The motion received amendments from Labor Cr Dylan Parker, requesting the report also investigated  rubbish within town centres, and for it to be added to the coastal and town centre waste and cleansing service level review, for the 2022-2026 period.

The motion and the amendment was passed unanimously by the council, with councillor officers expected to report back to council soon.