Featured Image Credit: The 5Gyres Institute
By Alice Morris
Volunteers gathered earlier this month on the beaches of Victoria, Australia to pick up plastic waste, and the results were remarkable.
70 volunteers removed 1,000 pieces of plastic weighing over 120 kilograms from Warrnambool’s beaches as past of the Sea Shepherd Marine Debris Beach Clean Up Day.
The clean up was part of a widespread effort to clean up Australia’s beaches.
In April, volunteers cleared 30 kilograms of trash from Killarney beach and 80 kilograms were cleaned off The Flume in June.
Andrew Holt, the clean up event’s organizer was impressed with the turnout in Warrnambool, but he says there’s still a long way to go before Australia’s beaches are clean.
“Most of the rubbish collected was between the footpath and the beach,” he said. “And most of it was bottles and cans from people walking along the path. This has led us to approach the council about adding more bins nearby.”
Holt hopes to soon host two beach clean ups every month
In 2016 alone, the Sea Shepherd’s marine debris campaign collected 429,333 pieces of trash and earlier this month the Western Australia Local Government Association’s (WALGA) state council passed a resolution that they hope will ban plastic bags across Western Australia.
“The city recognizes the significant impact that single use plastic bags can have on the environment and fauna in coastal, bushland and wetland areas,” said Joondalup Mayor Troy Pickard. “The city is investigating the introduction of a law (Plastic Bag Reduction Local Law) to only biodegradable bags provided by retailers in the district.”
This law will hopefully be the next step in ridding Australia’s beaches of plastic pollution.