Beach waste leaves bitter taste

Posted on 02 Jan 2024

By Greg Thom, journalist, Institute of Community Directors Australia

New figures have revealed volunteers removed more than 22.5 tonnes of litter from Victoria's shores and streets in 2023.

Next time you’re on the beach this summer and you accidentally lose some litter to the wind, spare a thought for the selfless volunteers dedicated to picking up after you.

The enormous magnitude of this effort has been revealed by Australia’s largest volunteer community beach and street cleaning group.

Figures compiled by Beach Patrol Australia have revealed its volunteers removed more than 22.5 tonnes of litter from the nation’s shores and streets in 2023.

The pile of discarded waste included more than 360,000 items made from plastic – 43,070 of them drink bottles.

Beach Patrol Australia organised 1,791 beach clean up events throughout 2023.

Each Beach Patrol volunteer spent, on average, more than an entire day picking up litter.

The most numerous items of rubbish collected and counted include:

cigarette butts (71,179)
hard rubbish measuring less than 5cm (59,544)
nurdles (44,247)
polystyrene or /foam items (27,633)
food wrappers (23,203)

“Our findings are clear: our coastlines are under threat and the time to act is now to ramp up our game when it comes to plastic litter and waste."

Dr Ross Headifen, co-founder, BeachPatrol Australia.

The data was collected by volunteers who entered their data into the LitterStopper app, which is also shared on the LitterStopper web page.

Dr Ross Headifen, co-founder of BeachPatrol Australia, said the collection statistics highlighted the urgent need for more targeted action.

“Our findings are clear: our coastlines are under threat and the time to act is now to ramp up our game when it comes to plastic litter and waste.

“The findings underscore the severity of the situation and the collective responsibility we share in preserving our coastal ecosystems.”

Dr Headifen said in the past few years the Victorian government has implemented bans on some superfluous single use plastic items such as plastic bags in supermarkets, straws, cotton buds, cutlery, plates and drink stirrers.

“While the ban on plastic bags and straws has made a big difference to those items being littered, the other items were not found in significant percentages,” said Dr Headifen.

“However, the BeachPatrol data shows more success could be achieved by considering these other items that are littered in substantial numbers.”