At 9am on a beautiful and sunny morning on Saturday, 17th

September, 19 volunteers walked down to Athol Beach from the bottom entrance of

Taronga Zoo to celebrate ‘Clean Up the World Weekend’.  Taronga youth volunteers, staff, and local community members, joined the

Take 3 event organisers on this mission to clean up the beach for the second

time this month. As we set foot on the beach, we saw litter scattered

everywhere. But it was a small beach and we had an army of 19 enthusiastic

volunteers so we were convinced it wouldn’t take long to get this beach

sparkling clean.

For the next one and a half hours, we picked up bags and

bags of rubbish. The beach was filled with bits of polystyrene, plastic

wrappers, drink bottles and cigarette butts. There was so much of it. Even an

old helmet was found wedged under a rock and a dedicated Take 3 member jumped

in the cold water to fish it out. At the end of the clean-up, we were amazed by

how much litter we picked up and how fabulous the beach looked. We then sat

back and enjoyed a delicious ‘rubbish-free’ morning tea while looking out at

Sydney Harbour. What a great morning.