Walk for Waist - Stage 1
Donation protected
My name is Doctor Antony (Tony) Bader. I am fifty-three years old, I have a daughter, Elizabeth, who is five years old, and I am a proud Australian!
On 13 March 2016, I began a journey around Australia to clean up our nations main highway. Along 14,000 kilometers of Highway, I will collect all the litter that I see on 'my' side of the road, placing it in garbage bags by the roadside for other Australians to collect as they drive on through.
The meandering to collect garbage along the way will effectively triple the distance of this walk, resulting in an overall trek of around 42,000 kilometers.
I started off cleaning the Brand Highway in Muchea, Western Australia on 13 March 2016. By Day 50 I had used up 1,000 bags, collected amost 40 Tonne of garbage - and had travelled only 100 kilometres.
At one stage of this journey, I had collected more than a Tonne per day - and was only walking about 800 meters!
I decided to take responsibility for this job on 1 January 2016, when as a New Years Resolution, I decided to walk in to nearby Serpentine for milk rather than take my car. Trust me - I needed the exercise!
I have driven this road a hundred times, but never walked along it.
The road I now saw from ground level was filthy! Worse than that. It is decaying. In some places I could not even see the ground. It is covered with trash; plastic bottles, aluminium cans, broken and intact beer and liquor bottles, discarded tyres, hygienic pads, used nappies, plastic bags, children’s lunchboxes, paper and cardboard discards, clothing, shopping bags.
You name it - if you use it - it is on the roadside.
These inner country roads are the responsibiity of the local shires, but they are understaffed, and not interested in litter that was probably put there before they were born. I therefore decided to pick it up myself. I thought that if people saw me picking up the garbage, then eventually someone else would start to do it with me. It took less than a week, and people in private cars began to stop, pick up my bags and taken them away!
Now, I am an Australian and I love this country. The flora, fauna, the people, deserts, Kimberley Ranges, Uluru. I love the vastness of it, and I love the contrasts and I love the animals that occupy it. This country is serviced by a fifteen-thousand kilometer highway , and I decided then - with your help - to make myself responsible for (at least) one side of the road,
An estimated 80% of marine litter is blown into the ocean from the land, so it is on the land that we need to make our stand. The marine litter does not come from oceanic dumping - it comes from litter that is dropped off at Coober Pedy and eventually blows into the seas.
This country needs help, and I need your help!
I have invested $27,000 in a Trailer, Website, Advertising and other marketing. I also have monthly overheads of $800.00, and I need to buy 375,000 Garbage Bags to consume before I hit the Northern Territory at a cost of approximately $112,500.00.
This task will also take me about nine years. I have enough funds left on the VISA to make it through June. At that time, the venture will fold, and this once in a lifetime opportunity to gouge back some of this embedded trash will be gone.
My determination to clean this nation is limitless, but my money supply is extremely limited. Please help me to clean as much of our nations main road as I can. One side, at least.
For more information www.walkforwaist.com.au
On 13 March 2016, I began a journey around Australia to clean up our nations main highway. Along 14,000 kilometers of Highway, I will collect all the litter that I see on 'my' side of the road, placing it in garbage bags by the roadside for other Australians to collect as they drive on through.
The meandering to collect garbage along the way will effectively triple the distance of this walk, resulting in an overall trek of around 42,000 kilometers.
I started off cleaning the Brand Highway in Muchea, Western Australia on 13 March 2016. By Day 50 I had used up 1,000 bags, collected amost 40 Tonne of garbage - and had travelled only 100 kilometres.
At one stage of this journey, I had collected more than a Tonne per day - and was only walking about 800 meters!
I decided to take responsibility for this job on 1 January 2016, when as a New Years Resolution, I decided to walk in to nearby Serpentine for milk rather than take my car. Trust me - I needed the exercise!
I have driven this road a hundred times, but never walked along it.
The road I now saw from ground level was filthy! Worse than that. It is decaying. In some places I could not even see the ground. It is covered with trash; plastic bottles, aluminium cans, broken and intact beer and liquor bottles, discarded tyres, hygienic pads, used nappies, plastic bags, children’s lunchboxes, paper and cardboard discards, clothing, shopping bags.
You name it - if you use it - it is on the roadside.
These inner country roads are the responsibiity of the local shires, but they are understaffed, and not interested in litter that was probably put there before they were born. I therefore decided to pick it up myself. I thought that if people saw me picking up the garbage, then eventually someone else would start to do it with me. It took less than a week, and people in private cars began to stop, pick up my bags and taken them away!
Now, I am an Australian and I love this country. The flora, fauna, the people, deserts, Kimberley Ranges, Uluru. I love the vastness of it, and I love the contrasts and I love the animals that occupy it. This country is serviced by a fifteen-thousand kilometer highway , and I decided then - with your help - to make myself responsible for (at least) one side of the road,
An estimated 80% of marine litter is blown into the ocean from the land, so it is on the land that we need to make our stand. The marine litter does not come from oceanic dumping - it comes from litter that is dropped off at Coober Pedy and eventually blows into the seas.
This country needs help, and I need your help!
I have invested $27,000 in a Trailer, Website, Advertising and other marketing. I also have monthly overheads of $800.00, and I need to buy 375,000 Garbage Bags to consume before I hit the Northern Territory at a cost of approximately $112,500.00.
This task will also take me about nine years. I have enough funds left on the VISA to make it through June. At that time, the venture will fold, and this once in a lifetime opportunity to gouge back some of this embedded trash will be gone.
My determination to clean this nation is limitless, but my money supply is extremely limited. Please help me to clean as much of our nations main road as I can. One side, at least.
For more information www.walkforwaist.com.au
Organizer
Tony Bader
Organizer
Cloverdale, WA