By Lachlan Ellis<\/p>\n
A local woman is campaigning to get litter off our streets, and the amount she collects every week will shock you.<\/p>\n
Marit de Lange lives in Darley but is originally from the Netherlands, and said the amount of rubbish dumped along roads and pathways in Australia shocked her when she first arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived in Australia for four and a half years now, the first time I documented my litter picking was 2019, that\u2019s the first time I took photos of it. Compared to the Netherlands, I thought Darley had a lot of rubbish,\u201d Ms de Lange told the Moorabool News.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a lot of rubbish on Grey Street and other streets in the area. I felt really triggered to do something about it, I was a bit annoyed with all the trash. I was thinking, \u2018who\u2019s going to do something about it?\u2019 Well, you know, why don\u2019t I start doing something?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms de Lange has an Instagram account called \u2018Grosstralia\u2019, where she posts photos of some of the huge rubbish hauls collected during walks.<\/p>\n
Some days, she said, she collects up to five kilograms of rubbish.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery walk it differs a bit, sometimes it\u2019s more, sometimes it\u2019s less. Generally, I would say it\u2019s between one and five kilos per walk. I walk five or six times a week,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I can\u2019t fill my red bin with all that rubbish. Sometimes other people help me get rid of the rubbish though, so that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most important thing in the fight against littering, Ms de Lange believes, is raising awareness.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s estimated that about 80 per cent of litter on the streets ends up in waterways. I think a lot of people don\u2019t realise where it ends up, it ends up in rivers and eventually it ends up in the ocean. I think a lot of people don\u2019t realise that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love it if other people started litter picking up too\u2026have some pride in the town, help keep it clean. There\u2019s a lot of rubbish in Victoria in general, if more people started picking it up, that\u2019d be great.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the year just a quarter of the way through, Ms de Lange has picked up around 800 cans and 500 plastic bottles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lachlan Ellis A local woman is campaigning to get litter off our streets, and the amount she collects every week will shock you. Marit de Lange lives in Darley but is originally from the Netherlands, and said the amount of rubbish dumped along roads and pathways in Australia shocked her when she first arrived. […]<\/p>\n