Tonnes of waste in wet Clean Up

Ann Larsen and Jean Tague help collect rubbish along David Low Way near the Hyatt resort on Sunday.

Dozens of volunteers, young and old, help clean up the North Shore area on Sunday.

Wet weather in the lead-up to Clean Up Australia Day meant fewer people and less litter this year, but those volunteers who turned up collected 110 cubic metres of rubbish.

A massive combined effort on the Maroochy North Shore from Mudjimba Wallum Bush Reserve to the skate park at Marcoola filled about 50 recycle bags and 40 general waste bags.

After the clean up, volunteers were treated to a free drink and sausage sizzle put on by the Mudjimba Surf Club.

At Mt Coolum, 15 bags were filled with rubbish, while Coolum Area Parks Society filled six bags from around Stumers Creek.

At Noosa, 11 skips were filled with eight tonnes of rubbish that had been dumped in bushland and along roadways.

Volunteers even found what appeared to be an illegal tip in state forest bordered by Beckman’s and Noosa-Cooroy roads, where people were dumping trailer-loads of junk, including car parts, microwaves, mattresses and TVs.

Meanwhile, Clean Up Australia Day founder Ian Kiernan called for national laws to crack down on e-waste producers.

Mr Kiernan said it was time the producers of electronic products such as computers and mobile phones were made accountable for the millions of tonnes of e-waste created by obsolete consumer goods.

He wants Australia to follow other countries, such as some in Europe, and introduce national laws that would force manufacturers to take products back once their lifespan expires.

“It’s called extended producer responsibility and when you buy that product the producer of the product has got to have a cradle-to-grave responsibility for its collection, dismantling and recycling at the end of its life,” Mr Kiernan said.

He said e-waste was being dumped in landfill at three times the rate of other rubbish and was an enormous challenge, particularly with cheap, imported Asian goods that had a short lifespan, and mobile phones that lasted between 18 and 20 months.