Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697643579975.pdf (Australia)
Sent from Windows Mail The Senate inquiry into the threat of Marine plastic pollution in Australia Dear Secretary, Thank you for the opportunity to provide a submission to this inquiry.

The problems and threats posed by marine debris, in particular plastic debris, have been of great concern to me for decades.

I urge you to act decisively to recommend urgent action to address these growing problems.
Our prized naturally beautiful coastal areas and inland river systems have contributed greatly to the high standards of the Australian way of life.

They also have created very substantial revenue streams from tourism.

Degradation of these natural beauties by marine plastic pollution threatens our Australian lifestyle; it also threaten our economy due to potential loses to our tourism industry.

Marine plastic pollution has a devastating impact upon Australia’s environment.
Plastic pollution in our waterways has grow exponentially in the past four decades, it poses a very significantly threat to biodiversity.

Marine life suffer starvation from ingestion of plastics (mistaken as food such as plankton), illness from toxic chemicals released from ingestion of plastics, entanglement and injury from plastic rubbish with indirect impacts across the food chain up to humans.

Microplastics act as sponges for toxic chemicals and last for a long time.
There are a number of practical, effective and comprehensive actions that governments need to take that will eliminate much of the marine debris found across the Australian coastal and estuarine environments.

Plastic drink bottles and lids make up a large percentage of plastic marine rubbish; this aspect of the marine plastic pollution can be significantly reduced.
Governments need to introduce a Container Deposit Scheme (CDS); this will 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.

Coke-a-Cola have lobbied Australian governments effectively against the introduction of CDS over the past several years.
These issues require leadership from government on behalf of our community and environment; we can no longer allow a situation to continue where big business makes some political donations then has their way with governments to the determent of the community and the environment.

Single use plastic bags are a scourge on this planet, and guess what; we managed to exist without them up until about 35 years ago.
Consumption of single use plastic bags is over 5 billion a year and the amount of plastic bags entering the litter stream each year is likely to be as high as 150 million bags p.a.

Plastic bags can migrate quickly and long distances, and are often mistaken by marine life for food such as jellyfish.

Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 89 My personal passion about ‘single use plastic bags’ was ignited in the aftermath of a large flood in 1988.
After flood waters had receded I went downs to Deek’s Drive Duffy, as usual to walk with my K9 companion.

As I looked down the river I was overwhelmed with grief by what I saw.

As far as the eye could see, in this heavily treed area, every single tree within 20- 30 meters of the river bank was covered with hundreds and hundreds of plastic bags.

As far as the eye could see; it was awful!


And what I realised was that all the way to the coast there would be thousands upon thousands more; but the worst of it was that further thousands upon thousands upon thousands were washed out to sea where they would cause death or massive problems for marine life.
Banning single use plastic bags, particularly the ones in fruit and veg sections of supermarkets/green grocers and microbeads in cleansing products would have a significant impact on the amount of plastic that enters the marine environment and effectively target those plastics that are most likely to be mistaken as a source of food.

In the ACT plastic shopping bags at supermarkets have been banned for years.
I’ve travelled extensively throughout the oceans of South East Asia; Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, where marine plastic pollution is horrendous.

I really do not want to see 1 meter high piles of plastic rubble along Australia’s beautiful coast lines as I witnessed even in very remote regions of the South East Asia’s oceans.

With the political will and foresight Australia can make very significant inroads into cleaning up marine plastic pollution.
Polling conducted for Total Environment Centre and Boomerang Alliance found that 69% of people are concerned about the environmental impacts of plastic.

Please act decisively and promptly on behalf of our community and our environment and recommend strong and meaningful measures which will address this growing problem.

Our environment and community deserve this.

Yours sincerely, Sue Ellerman Threat of marine plastic pollution in AustraliaSubmission 89