Over the weekend we conducted a bit of an experiment in regards to how much litter we can expect to find in the Tecoma surrounds once an unwanted McDonald’s opens for business in our town. Based on the VCAT conditions McDonald’s will be required to do regular litter patrols as far down as the rail station. (This is further then they normally patrol at other stores) The Tecoma franchisee also operates the Boronia store and last year we noted in media reports that McDonald’s litter obligations were being forgotten.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/busybodies-health-and-fitness-club-members-sick-of-mcdonald8217s-rubbish-in-their-carpark/story-fngnvlxu-1226692788645
So based on the Boronia experience we don’t hold a to of hope for regular Tecoma clean-ups.
The NO McDonalds in The Dandenong Ranges crew have registered a team for clean-up Australia Day and will be operating a clean action at the Tecoma rail stain form 9:30, you can join the event here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/483940391712302/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

Back to our experiment……our team picked up rubbish around the Boronia store based on a similar radius to what will be required. We spent only 15 minutes but the results can be seen here in the photo’s. Bags and bags of the stuff…..and not a McDonald’s litter patrol to be seen. Based on the age of the rubbish (How brittle the plastic straws become) it’s fairly obvious that the McDonald’s litter patrols are few and far between. The situation in Boronia is that very few domestic residences are within the clean up zone, it’s almost exclusively other commercial operations and government/council car parks who tend to clean up a lot of the mess themselves. In Tecoma the commercial operators are few meaning it will be left to Tecoma locals to clean up the mess.

However, we are not going to let them get away with such a mess here in Tecoma. This Sunday at the Community meeting come and here about our plans for a “Take-away Take-Back” action. This will be one of the many planned actions as we move into important stage of our campaign. If you have not yet responded to the Facebook invite you can find it here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/245105119001229/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

Join the Tecoma Community and special guests this coming Sunday, 2:00pm at the Tecoma Primary School hall.

This will be your chance to get involved and ultimately stop an unwanted McDonald’s presence in Tecoma.