Whenever Lisa Field participates in a community clean up, she is able to relay the amount of rubbish picked up and the type of trash she collected.
The Wyndham resident uses Litterstopper, an app created to log litter data that can then be shared with relevant groups to influence policy makers.
Ms Field said the app has been integral in helping to make environmental decisions in the municipality.
“Once, I made an effort to count the cigarette butts at Werribee Train Station. On that day, we’ve picked up 6000 cigarette butts and so that was really useful to advocate for there being a butt bin installed,” she said.
Ms Field said this led to further improvements and the ability to advocate for better bins at the station.
“It was clear that the old fashioned open bins, they were now replaced with the modern versions which are not open, birds can’t just stand on the side and pull out all of the containers,” she said.
During their latest clean up behind a local IGA the group collected 250 kilograms of rubbish and Ms Field said the volume of litter being dumped is “very astounding”.
“It does end up in our land and our water, as we know it’s also ending up in our bodies,” she said.
“Ultimately these things end up breaking down into smaller components and we end up breathing them in.”
Ms Field said it’s important for community members to be part of the solution.
“We’ve asked people if they see something, pick it up. No one else is going to pick it up, it’s just way too easy to walk past it and leave it for someone else,” she said.
“We have a little litter meeting coming up on Wednesday, the 13th of April, we just want more people to come and join us, find out what we’re doing and get involved.”
Details: Jess, 0450 348 969
