{"id":374825,"date":"2025-12-27T19:56:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T19:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/374825\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T19:56:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T19:56:31","slug":"trio-of-retirees-from-dongara-win-award-for-community-rubbish-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/374825\/","title":{"rendered":"Trio of retirees from Dongara win award for community rubbish collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

A trio of rubbish removal enthusiasts in Western Australia’s beachside town of Dongara have battled wild pigs, dodged road trains, and scorched under the hot sun in a quest to remove roadside litter.<\/p>\n

The picturesque seaside town, about 350 kilometres north of Perth, is known for its beautiful beaches, rolling dunes and natural beauty.<\/p>\n

When Glenys Bellis saw yet another piece of rubbish on the side of the road 14 months ago, she decided enough was enough.<\/p>\n

“I could see all the rubbish, and I thought something has got to be done about this,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It made me feel disgusting.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/p>\n

Rubbish collected from the side of the road is thrown out at the tip in Dongara. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

Her plan was simple \u2014 to spend her spare time picking up other people’s trash from the side of the road.<\/p>\n

And an encounter with her friend Sherry Martin at the op shop turned into the perfect recruitment opportunity.<\/p>\n

“She [Glenys] said something like ‘Hey, you look kind of trashy, want to help pick up roadside rubbish?’ And I said: ‘Sure, why not?'” Ms Martin said.<\/p>\n

Another friend, Glenda Green, also joined the cause, and together they became an award-winning trash trio, known as the ‘Roadside Rubbish Relics’.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes the relics refer to us, and sometimes the relics are some of the stuff that we pick up,” Ms Martin said.<\/p>\n

Tonnes of hard work<\/p>\n

Armed with gloves, bags, buckets and tongs, the ‘Relics’ spend up to six hours a day, sometimes three days a week, bush bashing around regional roads.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

That includes along the Brand Highway \u2014 the main road connecting Geraldton to Perth \u2014 which has a speed limit of 110 km\/h and is used by thousands of road trains.<\/p>\n

Ms Martin said the group had collected between eight and 10 tonnes of litter, including more than 13,000 drink containers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Glenda, Glenys and Sherry pick up rubbish just metres away from busy, high-speed roads and highways. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

“We find crocs and thongs, and we find things that are from bedside tables that probably should go in the rubbish bin and not on the roadside,” she said.<\/p>\n

“You name it, we find it.”<\/p>\n

Approximately 100,000 tonnes of waste becomes litter in Australia each year, according to litter reduction organisation Keep Australia Beautiful.<\/p>\n

While some of the litter may be accidental, other trash is more intentional.<\/p>\n

“Some of it really upsets us,” Ms Martin said.<\/p>\n

“Recently, we just picked up what a tradie had dumped in the bush, a whole trailer load of rubbish bits from remodelling a house.<\/p>\n

“It’s like, really? The tip is just around the corner, you couldn’t do that at the tip?”<\/p>\n

\"Sherry<\/p>\n

Sherry Martin and Glenda Green say they have seen it all along the Brand Highway. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

And sometimes, rubbish isn’t all the Relics find.<\/p>\n

“I was on Brand Highway \u2026 I heard a noise, and I thought it was a roo that I’d spooked,” Ms Martin said.<\/p>\n

“I turned around it was this huge, giant pig chasing me down and the only thing I had was an orange bag in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other.<\/p>\n

“I start screaming and yelling and flailing about, and then I end up inadvertently in the middle of Brand Highway before this pig finally turned around and ran off.”<\/p>\n

Picking up top prize<\/p>\n

Ms Bellis said she was “gobsmacked” when the Relics won the “Litter Action” category at this year’s WA Tidy Towns Sustainable Communities Awards.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Roadside Rubbish Relics’ accomplishment at the Tidy Towns awards is already proudly on display in Dongara. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

“It was mind-blowing,” she said.<\/p>\n

The judges said their efforts led to “a noticeable reduction in litter along the highway and have significantly improved the town’s presentation”.<\/p>\n

The local community has noticed their efforts too, with some drivers known to drop off bottles of water or deliver coffee.<\/p>\n

Ms Bellis said it made them feel part of the community.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a bloke coming from Eneabba, and he donates every time he comes up,” she said.<\/p>\n

“He’ll donate us money, he even stops and has a chat to us on the road.<\/p>\n

“That really gives me a high, and I feel like he’s family.”<\/p>\n

\"Glenda<\/p>\n

Sherry Martin and Glenda Green wave as cars drive past along the Brand Highway. (ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Chris Lewis)<\/p>\n

For Ms Martin, the feeling of accomplishment after a hard day on the tongs was the best part.<\/p>\n

“All that stuff that would have stayed in the environment, polluting the environment,” she said.<\/p>\n

She encouraged people to be more aware of the environment.<\/p>\n

“If you’re going to drink it, keep it in your car until you find a bin to put it in.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A trio of rubbish removal enthusiasts in Western Australia’s beachside town of Dongara have battled wild pigs, dodged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,202375,56193,202378,202376,44,3810,57305,202374,2261,202377,45,127540],"class_list":{"0":"post-374825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-community-clean-up","11":"tag-geraldton-news","12":"tag-keep-australia-beautiful","13":"tag-litter","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-recycling","16":"tag-rubbish","17":"tag-rubbish-relics","18":"tag-sustainability","19":"tag-tidy-towns","20":"tag-wa-news","21":"tag-waste-reduction"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}