A COMMITTED 48 volunteers recently boarded kayaks, dragon boats and paddle boards to help remove rubbish for the ‘Moonee Ponds Creek Paddle against Plastic’.

This was the last of three Paddle against Plastic events this year. The events are run by environmental group Ocean Crusaders and are backed by the Port of Melbourne.

The volunteers managed to collect 484kg of rubbish, filling a 12 metre skip bin.

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Port of Melbourne also sponsored Ocean Crusaders to complete two days of cleaning on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 November which removed a further 1468kg of rubbish from port-related areas.

Moving sacks of plastic waste. Credit: Port of Melbourne

That means an impressive total of 1952kg rubbish was removed over the three days last week, and over 3.5 tonnes of rubbish was removed over the three events this year.

Celebrating a job well done. Credit: Port of Melbourne

All rubbish collected was sorted and entered into the Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database before being disposed of. The dates for 2020 Paddle Against Plastic events are to be released soon.