Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697643280192.pdf (Australia)
SUBMISSION TO SENATE INQUIRY INTO THE THREAT OF PLASTIC POLLUTION ON OUR MARINE ENVIRONMENT Dear Secretary, First I would like to thank you for this opportunity to lodge a submission for this Senate Inquiry on the threat of plastic pollution, especially to the wondrously biodiverse marine environment.

Plastic waste is responsible for killing around a million seabirds and more than 100,000 sea mammals each year.

Approximately 6 million tonnes is dumped into our oceans annually.
Plastic bags and other plastic items are truly serial killers.

Having caused the death of a seabird whose body will rot away exposing the plastic packed into the bird’s stomach, the waste is released into the marine environment again to be mistaken by another animal as food.

The CSIRO researchers have found that 43% of seabirds have plastics in their gut and around a third of all sea turtles are believed to have ingested plastics; also that corals have become clogged by ingesting microplastics.
About 90% of floating marine debris is plastic waste.

Ocean currents bear much of this to form into gyres, huge garbage patches sometimes several hundred kilometres wide.

Plastic manufacture uses fossil fuels and as plastic products biodegrade, methane is released, adding to our planet’s emissions load and exacerbating ocean warming and acidification.

Another way plastic pollution harms marine life.


I am just one of many thousands of people aghast at the ecological damage littered plastic debris inflicts on marine life and oceanic birdlife.

Rather than presenting a sad litany of dying and dead seabirds with full bellies of plastic junk, or drowned dolphins trapped in plastic wrapping or many other examples of the direct cruelty of plastic that reaches the sea, I would like to focus on how we might act to prevent the damage occurring in the first place.
A CSIRO study indicated that 75% of the plastic litter in marine debris is generated locally.

See Britta Denise Hardesty, Senior Research Scientist for CSIRO: ‘We found about three-quarters of the rubbish along the coast is plastic.’ http://www.csiro.au/en/News/News-releases/2014/Plastic-on-the-coasts-is- ours Hence it would be very significant if we humans could change our behaviour in this regard.

I think that a lot more community education is needed to effect this.
Of course primary schools are fertile ground for such education and secondary schools should certainly be involved as well.

This strategy is already being implemented through many of our schools.

However clearly more such work is needed if we are to reduce plastic litter to better protect marine life.
A great deal of what we throw away is likely to wind up in the sea as so much of our waste becomes water-born via our stormwater drains, our creeks and rivers which move it downwards to eventually reach the sea.

As well there is direct littering along our beaches.

I refer you to an article in Post Newspapers, 10 Jan 2015, page 1.

(1) A young mother Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, (a coordinator of our local Earth Carers group) took her child to VacSwim lessons on Cottesloe beach, WA.
There she noticed fragments of plastic in the sand.

In 10 minutes she had collected 125 pieces from a patch of sand 25cm by 25cm, and by extrapolating that to the length of Cottesloe-Nth Cottesloe beach, estimated that 18 million bits of plastic lay in its sand.

It is really encouraging to have local young activists like her in our neighbourhood.

There have been many other actions around Perth, aimed at alerting people to the problem and at improving our recycling rate in Perth.
I will attach a few other articles that have appeared in our local Post newspaper.

The first (17 Nov 2012) shows Mika Leandro, a campaigner from the Conservation Council of WA coaxing Premier Colin Barnett to support at least a state Cash for Containers scheme.

(2) The second article, BYO bottle ….

Water provided (21 March 2015) encourages re- filling of water bottles in our western suburbs.
(3) Bring your own to plant a tree (20 June 2015) encourages coffee drinkers to BYO re-usable cups to certain cafes to cut down landfill and littering.

(4) Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 Another idea trialled in Perth was to have water dispensing machines around the city for refilling people’s water bottles.
See High-tech city water machines to cut waste, The West Australian, 17 Aug 2013 (5) So more inspirational in-service training please for our teachers by experts in creative programmes, using fun information-laden songs, games and so on to instil NO LITTERING attitudes in our young!

Also more newspaper articles, news items on televised and radio news broadcasts and community events to encourage people to avoid littering plastic.
In Perth we have a very good idea that is catching on around the country and beyond.

Plastic Free July.

It tackles the problem at its roots – us!

Initiated five years ago by the Western Metropolitan Regional Council’s Earth Carers, Plastic Free July challenges voluntary participants to avoid single use plastic items throughout that month.

In its first year, PFJ attracted just 40 people but this support swelled this year with 14,000 people, schools and businesses in 70 countries participating.
It’s a great example of how keen people are to help the environment – and its website and emails supply a plethora of good ideas for reducing plastic litter and pollution while saving resources and money.

See www.plasticfreejuly.org Clean Up Australia also offers a fact sheet on which plastics can and cannot be recycled.
See www.cleanup.org.au/PDF/au/cua_plastic_recycling_fact_sheet.pdf Shopping bags made from materials like calico (but not plasticised fabrics) make an easy alternative to ubiquitous single-use plastic bags prodigiously handed out by supermarkets etc.

Smaller open mesh bags for packaging your own fruit and vegies; also dry grains, rolled oats, nuts and dried fruits etc (from places like Angry Almond in Perth) also eliminate the need for the small plastic bags you rip off rolls in shops.
For hygiene, it’s necessary to regularly wash and dry well these multi-use bags but as they usually would fit into a normal load of washing, cleaning them should not use more water.

The making of these bags is an opportunity for small businesses.

Paper bags are another useful biodegradable alternative to plastic ones.

Other shopping choices people can make are to avoid buying food and drink in plastic bottles – and pressuring manufacturers using plastic containers to change to glass.
Use glass containers or cardboard packaging whenever possible.

Re-use glass jars and bottles or have them recycled – as with metal, cardboard and paper packaging.

Another glaringly obvious way to change the littering habit is to roll out a Container Deposit Scheme around the entire country.
The National Litter Index informs us that beverage sector waste, including plastic drinking straws and plastic lids on throw-away mugs etc form about 50% the volume in the litter stream and 60% of all plastic litter along Australia’s beaches and waterways.

The comprehensive Product Stewardship Act is an opportunity for stronger action to minimise plastic pollution.

What is needed though is a political decision to INCLUDE plastic packaging under the Act.
That requires some political courage and a grasp of the terrible environmental harm plastic pollution causes.

While Environment Minister Greg Hunt unfortunately delisted packaging from a priority list for better regulation under the Act, he is now reviewing the national marine debris plan.

With his recent extra interest shown in cleaning up our oceans, can we have some hope that he will pursue improved regulations under the Act to better protect marine life?
I hope that this Senate Inquiry will strongly urge him to do so!

One effective tactic for better protection of marine life would be to reclassify plastic waste as hazardous – and so give regulators more tools and funds to clean up such pollution.

This notion comes from Chelsea Rochman, a marine ecologist specialising in toxicology in the University of California at Davis.
She is one of a group of scientists who have called for plastic to have “a new label.” She also envisaged innovative strategies in plastic research to make benign plastic products Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 that are recyclable, re-useable, durable – and safer for human health and the environment.

(There was an article about her research and views in Nature, I think in 2011.)
A national CDS would reduce beverage litter of the marine environment by 60% and almost triple bottle and cans recycling rates to 85%.

Newspolls demonstrate 85% of the public is in support of a CDS.

South Australia set this in legislation almost 40 years ago with its successful Beverage Containers Act.
Big packaging and drink industries have obstructed the spread of this effective scheme ever since but in the last few years the Northern Territory finally broke through their barrier and established its own cash-for-containers scheme.

Much effort by the conservation-minded public at state/territory and national levels has been expended since the late 1970s to convince other states to follow the shining SA example and now the NT’s.
State ministers for the environment have discussed a national scheme at annual COAG meetings – but the roll-out of a national scheme is pre-emptively steam-rolled by companies like CocaCola Amatil and Schweppes.

NSW has come close to establishing a scheme under Mike Baird.

To hasten a national CDS, we need politicians to show more courage and face down the packaging and drink industries.
Poll after poll indicates the popularity of doing so – so the parties afraid of opposing their big donors should consider pleasing the people and addressing resource stewardship and climate change as the stronger factors in deciding whether to legislate for a CDS.

With a 10 cent deposit at point of purchase being redeemed when each empty is returned to depots in shopping centres and elsewhere, the scheme is very close to being revenue neutral once set up.
There are so many other benefits that arise from it.

A comprehensive cost-benefit analysis would surely favour it over the beverage industry’s alternative of placing recycling bins in parks and shopping centres.

That strategy results in placing a huge burden on the finances of local governments.

The financial incentive to return containers to depots is the key to its success.

Drink container litter left by the recalcitrant would disappear when eager children collect it to cash in at depots.
SA Scouts fundraise brilliantly from their state’s CDS.

Other community groups and charities could similarly benefit by it.

By attracting new industries, a CDS creates sustainable jobs (eg.

c. 1000 in WA which should make it of interest to Premier Barnett – and at national level to Treasurer Joe Hockey).
A CDS saves valuable resources by re-using or recycling them, and saves energy (especially in the case of aluminium can recycling which only needs 5% of the energy required to make a can from raw materials.)

Hence the CDS would cut down air pollution, improve air quality and reduce the greenhouse effect.

In the WA context, a CDS would save enough water to supply over 4000 homes in Perth, a wonderful opportunity in this water-stressed part of Australia.
All this on top of diminishing the amount of plastic waste that finds its way into our marine environment.

Of single-use plastic bags, the ACT, Tasmania, SA and the NT have banned retailers from supplying them.

Queensland too under its new Palaszczuk government got close to a ban this year.

The City of Fremantle has bravely tried to bring in single-use plastic bag ban but its efforts had troubles with the Barnett government which doubted that a local government authority could introduce such legislation.
See Freo plastic bag ban law in doubt, The West Australian, 30 Sept 2013.(6).

Also from TWA article (25 July 2014), Freo returns to plastic bag ban(7).

There was an objection to the mandatory charge to be imposed on customers using plastic bags - so the charge was removed by Fremantle Council.

Even so, there has been a Motion of Disallowance against acceptance of the ban.

Freo Council has lobbied every state MP to favour allowing the ban to be implemented.
The ban lies in limbo now until it comes up in parliament for debate – which should be around October 13.

Hopefully enough MPs will have been persuaded to over-ride the disallowance motion – and City of Fremantle will become the first local government jurisdiction to implement a ban on Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 single-use plastic bags.

Then perhaps those state/territory governments that have not yet banned single use plastic bags will become more enthusiastic about it.
As the Australian government spends c. $4 million of taxpayers money a year on cleaning up plastic bag litter, it makes economic sense to use other strategies to reduce that littering such as wider use of the bans and strategies as above.

That money could then be spent on educating our communities about reducing the plastic litter problem.
None of the ideas I have outlined in my submission are new – but they DO all need more encouragement to be implemented on a larger scale to make the difference our marine environment needs and deserves.

I ask the Senate Inquiry into these matters that: • Education for better resource stewardship, especially regarding plastic, be ramped up through our schools and communities.

Eg.

Plastic Free July in Perth’s western suburbs.

• Container Deposit Scheme be rolled out nationally.
This means staring down big packaging and drink manufacturers and taking action for the environment for the sake of its good health upon which we all ultimately depend.

• Recognition of community activists drawing attention to the problems and to solutions – so that their ideas and enthusiasm can infuse more into our communities.

• Revision on Australia’s Product Stewardship Act by including plastic packaging in the Act.
Reclassifying plastic waste as hazardous would strengthen the arm of regulators to clean up plastic pollution.

• Encourage environmentally sensible moves in local government (as in Fremantle’s efforts to ban single-use plastic bags) when state/territory or federal government is obstructionist!
Yours sincerely, Judy Blyth Date: 2015/09/09 Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129 Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 129