Business Clean Up Australia Day 2007 - PIPE REALLY CLEANED UP!

...for the first time, PIPE Networks as a company participated in Business Clean Up Australia Day this year! PIPE had a large contingent of keen-to-get-dirty volunteers who gave up their air-conditioned, latte sipping office jobs to pickup all sorts of rubbish from along the River in Brisbane and Balmoral Beach in Sydney. PIPE became involved through the efforts of Kym McNamara who was instrumental in getting our PIPE Green initiative started in January this year. Kym (with some help) organised both the events and they turned out to be a great success

The Brisbane Green Team gearing up for a 'big one'

The PIPE 'Green Team' in Brisbane were allocated a massive clean up area from the Thornton Street Ferry stop to the Riverside Expressway along the Brisbane River. You'd think that with all of the parkland along there that it would be a nice clean spot to spend an afternoon but NOOO...

It'll wash off... right?

As you can see from the photos, there was a lot of rubbish from the gardens, water's edge, pathways and from below the mangrove boardwalks. All in all, 12 full bags as well as a shopping trolley full of random bits of rubbish were collected!

What is that smell???

Of note in Brisbane, 5 pairs of old trousers, 4 condoms & numerous condom packets, lots of juice bottles with bits of garden hose attached, a shopping trolley that was too far from home and a dish drainer that was made into dodgy crab pot were recovered. As well as a lucky find of a $10 note for Tony! Retirement or a few beers mate?

Nice crab pot Tony!

In Sydney, the team cleaned up a huge area of beautiful Balmoral Beach, collecting quite a few (15 apparently!) bags of rubbish. Lots of '40' shaped sparklers were found all over the place as well as some interesting clear packets... The day was finished off with a steak at the Oaks Hotel - nice!

The Sydney Green Team ready to go...

The Sydney Green Team hard at work...

Good job Lads!

The day (in Brisbane) ended with pizza, subway and some nasty chocolate fudge slices, up at the Kangaroo Point rotunda, with the team catching the ferry back to the office. We were all sun hardened and some of us a little dirty!

Hmm... Pizza, Subway & Coke....

Big thank you to Kym for organising the day and for those who helped her put it together. Also to Bevan and Steve for allowing so many of us to be away from work to make our respective cities just a little bit cleaner. Finally, to those who let their office coffee's go cold to come and help:


In Brisbane: Sarah, Amanda, Tony, Dave C, Jai, Matt McD (aka Donut), Graham E, Graham C, Andy P, Raj, Kym and Sam.
In Sydney: Piers, Jeremy, Andre, Bob and Chris B.

Great effort everyone - let's all get behind our next office project; RECYCLING!