Project overview

Each council had 20 litter baskets within their local government area, making a total of 120 distributed around Port Phillip Bay.

Every six weeks, PMA serviced the traps and delivered bags of debris to central venues. Here, groups of volunteers, coordinated by Tangaroa Blue staff, PMA and Sustainability Victoria, sorted and counted the litter and separated out the organic matter. The resulting data was submitted into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) Database. Council staff supported by organising venues, participating in the audits and disposing of the litter afterwards.

The project included eight cycles of asset servicing, data collection, and community engagement. The last four cycles occurred during lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

from: Brie Sherow et al. (2023) Land use and COVID-19 lockdowns influence debris composition and abundance in stormwater drains. Science of the Total Environment, 871. Reproduced under a CC 4.0 licence.