Ocean Crusaders removed 8000kg of rubbish from the Burnett River earlier this month with help from volunteers.
The specialised waterway cleaning crew returned to Bundaberg following their initial clean in Augustwhen they removed 6.78 tonnes of rubbish.
Ocean Crusaders founder Ian Thompson said that since being contracted by Bundaberg Regional Council to clean the Burnett River they have removed 14.8 tonnes.
“Between the two clean-ups we’ve already done there’s 14.8 tonnes, which has been removed in just 12 days and that’s pretty staggering, but there’s still plenty to do,” Ian said.
“We’ll be back in April for another round.”
While Ian said the clean-up collected a vast quantity of plastics and larger materials, the most promising sign was participation from locals, who volunteered with the crew.
“For our hardcore clean-up days we had some cool people join us,” he said.
“We had one girl who came back for the second time and that’s really great because passionate people are what makes a difference.
“When they come out with us they can see the problem first hand and they can see the extent of the problem.
“That’s really important as normally you only see a few bits of rubbish maybe floating in the river, but until you go into the places where it really gets to and experience how hard it is to pick up you don’t the get full appreciation of how much there is.”
Source: Bundaberg Now