A new UNSW-led study has revealed that plastic makes up 84 per cent of all rubbish littering Australian beaches, using a marine database to collate the 10 years of data.
2,882 plastic floats,211 ghost nets, 147 long line beacons and 234 fish attracting devices are among thousands of items of plastic pollution revealed by.
It looks like snow : how Australia plans to fix the horrifying blight of expanded polystyrene Graham Readfearn
On a two-kilometre stretch of the Yarra River east of Melbourne’s CBD a few years ago, volunteers were gathering rubbish from the banks and reeds.
Among all the discarded bottles and bits of plastic sucked up with an oversized vacuum were an estimated 5 million pieces of expanded polystyrene – some in the form of tiny white balls, others in chunks at various stages of disintegration.
“It is not how a river should look,” says Andrew Kelly, the fulltime Yarra riverkeeper on the ubiquity of this feather-light expanded plastic, known as EPS.
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Fishing conservation charity OzFish Unlimited has partnered with Tangaroa Blue Foundation to help recreational fishers tackle rubbish in their waterways.
From flotsam collecting in saltmarshes, to riverbank dumping, from forgotten tackle to microplastics that end up in fish bellies, OzFish and Tangaroa Blue are finding innovative ways to create lasting change and turn around outdated practices of past generations.
OzFish Director of Habitat Programs Cassie Price said the new partnership and education program “ReefClean Look after your Tackle” reinforces the changing perception of recreational fishers in Australia and their motivation to be part of the solution.