The world’s oceans are expected to contain more plastic than fish, by weight, by 2050 (http://bit.ly/more-plastic-than-fish).

Gardiners Creek is fed litter from five local government areas (City of Whitehorse, City of Monash, City of Glen Eira, City of Stonnington and the City of Boroondara). Some of this litter gets as far as Port Phillip Bay and the world’s oceans. Downstream, the City of Melbourne manages 63 litter traps to prevent litter entering the Yarra River, the Maribyrnong River and the Moonee Ponds Creek (http://bit.ly/melbourne-litter-traps).

Parks Victoria manages a floating litter trap on the Yarra River at Burnley Harbour, near Herring Island. This location is downstream from Gardiners Creek. This litter trap catches larger floating objects but releases smaller floating items through a mesh grill on the outlet of the litter trap.

The City of Stonnington owns and maintains a Gross Pollutant Trap (GPT) on a drain that runs under the TH King oval
towards Gardiners Creek. This drain drains the small shopping strip in High Street, west of the railway level crossing. GPTs are expensive to install but relatively cheap to empty, using a vacuum truck (http://bit.ly/melbourne-water-pollutant-traps).

The Saxby Road drain is owned and managed by the City of Boroondara. It has a metal fitting on the end of the pipe to accommodate a litter net. There is no net currently fitted to this pipe. This type of litter trap is cheaper to install than a GPT but is more expensive to maintain. 

When full of litter, a crane truck is used to lift the net from this type of device.

An example of a demountable litter trap constructed from marine grade stainless steel in the shape of a wheelie bin that can be emptied using a standard side arm garbage truck (http://bit.ly/demountable-litter-trap).

The City of Manningham won the “Keep Victoria Beautiful Sustainable Cities Litter Prevention Award” in 2018 for their development of a rubbish bin with an underground section that traps litter in a cage in a pit. The pit serves as the point of entry to a drainage pipe. 

These devices can be emptied using a standard side arm garbage truck. Six of these devices have been installed at litter “hot spots” in Manningham. Litter “hot spots” are typically suburban shopping strips (http://bit.ly/litter-hotspot-program).

The High Street, Ashburton Shopping Strip sits on an east-west ridge. It drains towards Gardiners Creek on the south side and towards Back Creek on the north side. Back Creek flows into Gardiners Creek just upstream of Great Valley Road. Early advice from Melbourne Water re litter traps for Gardiners Creek recommended considering “at source” solutions to litter in Gardiners Creek.

by Trevor Phillips

Extracted from FoGCV Newsletter 70, November 2019

STOP PRESS: Katie Allen MP (Federal member for Higgins) announces $20,000 Grant for a litter trap on the Saxby Road drain in the City of Boroondara, May 2020.

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