Plastic Waste in Australia
4
year.
13
While some ocean plastic originates from the sea-based shipping and fisheries
industries, most of it comes from land-based sources and is transported via rivers.
14
Once in
the ocean, microplastics can act as vectors for toxic chemicals to enter the ecosystem
through marine life.
15
For the nearly one million volunteers for
Clean Up Australia Day
, the impact of plastic waste
on the environment is clear. Of all rubbish collected in 2022, 63% was plastic waste, which
was up 17% from the previous year.
16
The newer items picked up by volunteers
—
face
masks, vapes and RAT tests
—
reflect how our use of plastic has increased, but the older
items
—
soft plastics, beverage bottles, coffee cups, takeaway food containers, and single-
use cutlery and plates
—
remind us of how persistent plastics waste is.
17
When plastic degrades, it dissolves into imperceptible smaller fragments called
microplastics, which filter into the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we
eat.
18
Microplastics have been found in 94% of oysters globally,
19
and in the gastrointestinal
tracts of 62% of fish in Australia.
20
A study of microplastics in the Great Australian Bight
concluded that about 14 million tonnes of microplastics reside on the ocean floor.
21
There are serious questions about the effect our heavy use of plastics is having on our
health. Plastics have been linked to diseases ranging from cancer to lung disease, birth
defects and endocrine toxicity.
22
From extraction through to manufacturing, use and
disposal, plastic impacts our health.
23
Plastics have been termed a “cocktail of
13
United Nations, The Ocean Conference (n.d.)
Factsheet:
Marine pollution
,
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Ocean_Factsheet_Pollution.pdf
14
United Nations environment Programme (UNEP) (2021),
Drowning in plastic: Marine litter and plastic waste
vital graphics
, https://gridarendal-website-
15
Tan Suet et al (2021)
‘
Marine microplastics as vectors of major ocean pollutants and its hazards to the
marine ecosystem and humans
’
,
Progress in Earth and Planetary Science
, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40645-
16
Clean Up Australia (2022)
Rubbish Report 2022
, p 6, https://www.cleanup.org.au/rubbish-report
17
Ibid.
18
Senathirajah et al
(2021) ‘Estimation of the mass of microplastics ingested –
A pivotal first step towards
human health risk assessment’,
Journal of Hazardous Material
,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124004
19
Wootton et al (2022) ‘
Microplastic in oysters: A review of global trends and comparison to southern
Australia
’,
Chemosphere
, p 1
20
Wootton et al (2021)
‘
A comparison of microplastic in fish from Australia and Fiji
’
,
Frontiers in Marine
Science,
p 1, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.690991
21
Barrett et al (2020)
‘
Microplastic pollution in deep-sea sediments from the Great Australian Bight
’
,
Frontiers
in Marine Science
, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.576170/full
22
Landrigan et al (2023)
‘
The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health
’
,
Annals of Global
Health
, p 3, https://annalsofglobalhealth.org/articles/10.5334/aogh.4056/
23
Ibid
.