As the streak of warm weather continues and residents flock to popular hot spots around the municipality to cool off, a Werribee resident is pleading with people to help keep Wyndham clean.
Jess Fairfax said she just recently went for a run along Werribee South beach, when she was stopped by the sight of rubbish bags brimming with Uber Eats packaging and discarded bottles.
“I was like ‘oh my goodness,’ I know it’s summer, but people just aren’t cleaning up after themselves,” she said.
“Just leaving the bag there, it was intentional, and also right next to the beach where it could end up in the water.”
A few days before, Ms Fairfax had been at Riverwalk Splash Park and says she was shocked by the state it had been left in.
“I don’t want to go to a park that’s trashed, I’m sure other people don’t want to go to a park that’s trashed,” she said.
“There were bins nearby.
“If you are having a picnic, make sure that when you’re leaving, you’re leaving the site in a decent state.”
Both experiences prompted Ms Fairfax to put a call out on Facebook, in the hopes people could provide advice about what can be done to lessen the rubbish behaviour.
“We really need to up the enforcement on littering…we need to write to our politicians, [and ask] why is there not enforcement of littering?,” she said.
Ms Fairfax also recommended residents consider joining a clean up group, or do individual clean ups.
“Take a bag when you go for a walk, take some tongs, even if it’s a small amount, it’s something practical that can be done,” she said.
Ms Fairfax also encourages people download Litterstopper, an app that allows residents to log how much rubbish is collected, which can be used to influence laws.
“The other one is Snap, Send, Solve so if you see a trolley or a whole bunch of dumped rubbish, you can take a photo and upload it and that gets sent to the relevant organisation, and they will deal with it,” she said.
“But there are obviously bigger things that need to happen at a higher level.
“It’s depressing, nobody wants to go on a walk and just be confronted by a whole lot of people’s trash.”
