Environmentalist and Aquatic Scientist Sheree Marris is asking holiday makers and residents along the state’s coast to keep beaches, foreshores and roadsides clean of litter this summer.

As ambassador of Victoria’s Coast Too Lovely to Litter campaign, launched today, avid diver Ms Marris said litter significantly reduced the visual quality of the environment, and the health and safety of people and marine life.

The first campaign of its kind, Victoria's Coast Too Lovely to Litter focuses on the most visible types of litter including takeaway containers and wrappers, beverage containers, cigarette butts and other types of packaging.

Spanning almost the entire 2000km stretch of Victoria’s beautiful coastline, the campaign aims to reduce litter by at least 30 percent between December and April.

"As school breaks up for the Christmas holidays, the coast becomes a focal point for families and holiday makers," Ms Marris said.

"Litter is very harmful to animals and marine life as they can be strangled by or tangled up in it or mistake it for food."

As well as causing environmental damage, litter makes our beaches and foreshores look uncared for and therefore are less likely to be used.

"Litter also often attracts more litter, however people are less inclined to leave their rubbish behind in clean areas," Ms Marris said.

The Victoria’s Coast Too Lovely to Litter campaign is primarily funded by EPA Victoria and the Australian Packaging Covenant with funding from five regional waste management groups. In addition, funding has come from 17 councils situated along the coast from the South Australian to the New South Wales borders.

Billboards and signage will carry the Victoria’s Coast to Lovely to Litter campaign message along with a call to action to Do the right thing; put it in the right bin and report litterers using EPA Victoria’s Litter Report Line Website – www.epa.vic.gov.au/litter/

Project Manager Tina Perfrement said it was important to build a community that will do the right thing and dispose of their rubbish appropriately.

"We have deliberately avoided going down the track of producing a lot of promotional material for this campaign," she said.

"We have done small runs on items like frisbees, coasters and car rubbish bags but most of the campaign messages will come from outdoor signage, a dedicated website, performing artists at events, social media tools like facebook and a short DVD to screen on YouTube, cinemas and other public screenings."

Each region or council will coordinate a localised campaign, which will run until April 2011.

To keep track on what’s happening, log on to http://toolovelytolitter.com.au/ or join our Facebook page Facebook/Victoria’s Coast Too Lovely to Litter.

For further information or to arrange an interview with Sheree Marris please contact

Communications Consultant Kristi High on 0407 366 466.