Optimism over river clean-up

A BIKE, an oxyacetylene canister and 100-year-old medicine bottles are among the items divers collected near Hobart’s waterfront this week.

About 30 Tas Uni Dive Club volunteers undertook the 10th annual Marine Debris Clean-Up and Dive in the murky waters between Princes Wharf and Elizabeth Street Pier on Tuesday night.

The divers reaped 500kg of rubbish, including a push bike, an oxyacetylene bottle, historic bottles as well as tyres, cleaning items, hammers, bottles and cans.

But dive co-ordinator Andrew Bain said the tally was down on last year because the Taste of Tasmania and other events became more environmentally friendly.

Mr Bain said a lot of the items were old, including 100year-old elixir medicine bottles and 30-year-old alcoholic and soft drink cans and bottles.

“It’s good news this rubbish is older,” he said. “This indicates that less rubbish is going in, so that’s good news.

“This means we can focus our attention on other things like the [Hobart] Rivulet where things are getting washed down ... next time round.”

However, Mr Bain did not shy away from the negative environmental impacts.

“To think that people were here fishing [on Tuesday] with this type of pollution just below them, it’s bad,” he said.

“It’s hard for us to get it out ... but it’s much easier to put it in a bin rather than in the ocean.”