Latest news with #TangaroaBlue
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Yahoo
Sad 1,342kg detail in photos from remote beach reveals 'relentless' problem
It should be a picturesque Aussie oasis but there is one major problem plaguing this well known island. And these images show just how bad a global crisis has become. In just a short 10 metre stretch of sand along Greta Beach on Australia's Christmas Island, volunteers found some 17,500 pieces of rubbish and marine debris washed up on the beach this week. Sometimes referred to as the Galapagos of Australia, the protected area is a known hotspot for the endless stream of marine rubbish. While promoted for its inherent beauty, you don't have to go far reading the reviews on TripAdvisor to learn about the contaminating problem. "Beautiful beach covered in ocean rubbish," the top review is titled. "Don't let the plastic put you off. Go there, collect a rubbish bag at the start of the track and do the environment a favour," another reviewer wrote. "Rubbish I am afraid, no I mean full of rubbish," a third review is titled. The Tangaroa Blue Foundation coordinates a huge network of volunteers and uses the Australian Marine Debris Initiative to record rubbish washed up on Australian beaches. Its members were part of a team that removed a massive haul of trash from the beach. "June brings huge volumes of marine debris. Despite our team's efforts, it was washing in faster than we could remove it, a stark reminder of the issue's relentless nature," the group said. It's likely that just about every single piece came from another country. "This is a global problem with local impacts that demands international action," it said. Rare photos capture incredible whale rescue off Australian coast Detail in beach photo proves $17 billion Aussie issue is 'getting worse' 10-tonne find on Aussie beach highlights devastating issue The ocean surrounding Christmas Island was declared a marine park in 2022, making it Australia's second largest protected area, and complementing the already established National Park more than half the island. The group shared photos online showing the grim extent of the scourge in the otherwise gorgeous area. In the end, they collected 33 bags of debris weighing a whopping 221 kilograms. The group was joined this week by students from the Christmas Island District High School who also shared before and after photos following the extensive cleanup with that number surging. "We successfully removed and audited 846kg of marine debris — plus an additional 496kg of hard plastic remnant. That's a total of 1,342kg of marine pollution cleared from Greta Beach," the school said. Despite years of growing public awareness and initiatives to tackle plastic pollution, the overall problem isn't letting up, according to Tangaroa Blue's CEO Heidi Taylor. "The question I often get asked is if it's getting better," she told Yahoo News recently. "And the answer is no". "That's because the world's population is getting bigger and we keep using more and more stuff, even if the same percentage is being released into the environment, that would still equate to a greater volume. "So overall, it is getting worse." After more than 20 years of laboriously counting ocean rubbish, she has been part of building the "biggest database of marine debris in the southern hemisphere". "I remember the days when we first started talking about marine debris and people thought we were talking about driftwood... It wasn't really on anyone's radar back then," she told Yahoo. "The goal was if we knew where it was coming from, we then knew the right stakeholder group to engage to find a practical solution" to stop it." People who want to help are encouraged to download the Australian Marine Debris Initiative app and start cataloguing what they find.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Millions of Aussies given chance to win $10,000 in simple recycling lottery
Millions of Aussies are in with a chance of winning $10,000 by simply recycling their household waste through the container deposit scheme in one state. It will only take 50 drink containers and proof of transaction for Victorians to be entered into the 'Win a millions cents' competition, an incentive introduced by authorities to boost recycling efforts. From Monday, May 5, anyone who heads to a deposit site and returns 50 containers will be eligible to go in a draw to win one of the five $10,000 cash prizes, with one lucky winner even getting the chance to donate a further $10,000 to a charity of their choice. Return at least 50 eligible containers in a single transaction. Keep the proof of transaction. Head to the website and complete the online entry form. "All you need to do is go collect your containers and take them back to your local refund point. And then take a photo of your receipt or a screenshot if you use the app," Vic Return CEO Jim Round told 7News. Every group of 50 containers equates to one entry into the prize draw, meaning Aussies can increase their chance of winning by recycling as many containers as possible in one transaction. The competition ends June 15. Victoria's Environment Minister Steve Dimopoulos said the residents will be able to turn trash into cash and win "a million cents". "Not only does it help the environment, it also helps the supply chain of raw materials," he said about the state's unique recycling campaign. The chance to win $10,000 is one way that state governments are encouraging Aussies to do the right thing when it comes to their recycling. Container deposit schemes have been introduced across the country in recent years, allowing Aussies to collect 10 cents for every eligible plastic container they return. While the schemes have encouraged some to rummage through bins in search of eligible items, there are some advocates who have questioned whether the amount for a single plastic container is still enough of an incentive to enact real change in recycling behaviour. Heidi Taylor is the CEO of Tangaroa Blue, which has spent more than 20 years cataloguing plastic pollution that's washed up on Australian shores, and believes governments should consider increasing the financial return per bottle. "We have seen a reduction in beverage containers [in the environment] due to these schemes,' she told Yahoo News recently. "You see it reduce a lot at the beginning of a campaign or scheme like this and then it dwindles a little bit. "There's a lot of conversations going on right now about whether 10 cents is enough, and the answer to that is probably no. If you want people to see it as an incentive, you need to make it an incentive and 10 cents is not really that much in this day and age." Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Aussies take aim at hidden killer on supermarket shelves: 'Warrants further investigation'
You've probably never heard of the term, but you definitely know what it is. There are plenty of supermarket products that when you get them home and open them up, it's hard not to notice there is more packaging than product. In fact, in some cases, there is about twice as much plastic than is actually necessary to house the contents. It is typically done for marketing purposes to make the item appear larger than it is, and thus more appealing to shoppers. In the industry it's known as "non-functional slack fill" – and it's in the crosshairs of dedicated Aussies who are piecing together the global puzzle of plastic pollution. "You may have never heard of the term before, but I guarantee you've seen it," says Heidi Taylor, the CEO of Tangaroa Blue, which has spent more than 20 years cataloguing plastic pollution that's washed up on Australian shores. "It's when you open a package and there is more air in there than product. And there's no functional reason for that." You're probably thinking of chip packets, but they actually do require the extra air so they don't get crushed. "But there's a lot of products that just have the size of the packaging excessive because it's good for marketing," she told Yahoo News Australia. As a result, an untold amount of plastic ends up in the environment for no other reason than intentionally deceiving consumers. The group — and its extensive network of partners and volunteers — recently investigated the extent of the issue by meticulously measuring everyday items and the ratio of actual product inside. And the findings, detailed in a 33-page report, were damning. "About 89 per cent of the products surveyed had more than 50 per cent excess packaging," Taylor told Yahoo. Among some of the worst products were Tide dishwasher pods (395ml of product to 1600ml of packaging), Gravox meat sauces (31ml of sauce to 250ml of plastic), Lindt Assorted chocolates (130ml to 1200ml) and Coles brand Organic Coconut Flakes (200ml to 1700 ml of packaging). "The majority of packaging sampled was made or included components of soft plastics. This is significant because soft plastics are often more challenging to recycle and contribute substantially to plastic pollution," the report notes. Coles had three in-house products identified as particularly bad offenders, and admitted to Yahoo News on Monday it could do better. "Coles continues to work hard to reduce unnecessary plastic packaging from our stores. While Coles Own Brand Wellness Road Maca Powder and Organic Coconut Flakes are subject to product settling leading to headroom in the packaging, we recognise that the volume of slack filling identified in the report warrants further investigation with our supplier to understand if optimisations can be made to reduce unnecessary packaging," a spokesperson told Yahoo. 🌊 Grim photos reveal 'eye-opening' problem at 'Australia's ugliest beach' ☀️ Disturbing vision for Australian beaches as plastic problem grows 🐦 'Sad' reminder about the common grocery item killing Aussie wildlife The group has been presenting their work as part of an ongoing international forum backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to produce a Global Plastics Treaty. In November, Australia joined nations gathering in South Korea for the fifth round of negotiations to finalise the text of the treaty. Further meetings are scheduled for Switzerland this year before the global document is hopefully finalised next year. The end result of the drawn-out process, aims to establish a legally binding international framework to comprehensively address plastic pollution throughout its entire lifecycle — from production and design to disposal and recycling. One small outcome, if Tangaroa Blue gets its way, could see the amount of superfluous plastic used in packaging everyday supermarket items dramatically reduced. "If we're looking for ways of reducing packaging, we can regulate the amount of air that is allowed in products," Heidi said. "And that would not only reduce plastic production but it would also reduce, significantly, the amount of waste we're creating because of those products." Tackling things like non-functional slack fill is just one aspect of addressing a slow-moving global crisis that hitherto has shown very few signs of improving. "We know plastic lasts for hundreds and hundreds of years... we have to stop making decisions on things that just make life easy," Heidi argued. "If we're really going to address not only plastics in our oceans, but plastics in our bodies and every part of our world, we need to start reducing plastic production and we need to continue to phase out items that shouldn't be made out of plastic in the first place." According to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, it's estimated some 145,000 tonnes of plastic enters our environment each year in Australia, which equates to 250 kilograms a minute. Meanwhile about 100,000 marine animals are thought to be killed globally by ocean plastic ingestion or entanglement each year.
