Theme: Caring for our Coast

Seaweek '93 coordinator: Bob Moffatt & Glenn Tonges

20 ways to care for our Coast

1. Celebrate the sea
Find some friends and actively enjoy the sea to appreciate its benefits.

2. Don't use your toilet as a rubbish bin
String, tooth brushes, tissues, plastics and hair are difficult to treat at the sewage plant.

3. Don't pour cooking oil down the sink or drain
It ends up on the beach. Pour it in a container and put it our with the rubbish that goes to the tip or use it in your compost bin.

4. Think of the link - the sea and the sink
What ever you tip down the sink ends up at the sewage plant and then after treatment it ends up in the sea.

5. Don't water the driveway, it won't grow
All that water washes to the beach taking with it chemicals, plant clippings, dirt and oil.

6. Plant don't pave
Decrease the amount of paving and concrete around your home. Landscaping is smarter and allows water to soak into the ground slowing water runoff to the sea.

7. Become nitrate free
Plant native trees and shrubs in urban areas so that fertilizer is reduced. The sea is cleaner without it.

8. Choose phosphorus free
Look carefully at products to see if they are phosphorus free before you buy them. Encourage others to read labels when shopping.

9. Fix your car leaks
More oil ends up in the sea from urban run-off than from tanker spills! If your car drips, the oil will find its way to the ocean when it next rains.

10. Scoop the poop!
Unless you like to swim in animal poop, make sure you and your neighbour pick up the droppings.

Carry a plastic bag and use it as a pooper scooper, then put it in the nearest bin so it can be taken to the tip.

Scoop the poop!

11. Slow the flow
Low flow shower heads, drip irrigators and half flush toilets conserve water. Reduced water use means less to treat at sewage plants and less stormwater.

Water in the morning and evening to reduce evaporation and toughen up plants. The less water that runs out to sea, the less pollution on our beaches.

12. Join clean up days
Clean up Australia Day and other locally organised beach cleanups do make a difference. They show others you care as well as removing that hard to clean rubbish.

13. Hold onto your butt
Our streets and beaches are not ashtrays. Keep cigarette butts out of the gutter.

If you do smoke, make sure you use an ashtray that you empty and put out with the garbage. Pack your boat to reduce garbage and always bring back all your rubbish including cigarette butts.

14. Don't pour engine oil and paint in the gutter
Pour it into a plastic container and take it to your nearest recycling centre or rubbish tip, or ring your local authority.

15. Use walking tracks
These protect sensitive dune plants and help stop beach erosion. Dune plants stop the sand from blowing away.

16. Keep drains clean
All rubbish which blows from the land ends up on the beach. Make sure rubbish from your street can't enter storm water drains. Secure rubbish bins and keep your street clean.

17. Don't spill your bilge
Don't pump your oily bilge at sea. Use a container or install a holding tank and recycle it back on shore. Refuel your boat on land to reduce oil in the sea.

18. Catch what you need and eat what you catch
When fishing or collecting, leave something for others to catch.

19. Recycle, Re-Use, Reduce
Reduce the amount of material that has to be treated at sewage plants. Food scraps can be put into a compost bin and moved from place to place around the garden.

20. Join MESA or MTA's
Get involved. Both these associations are voluntary and non-profit.