Our change makers from Sydney embarked on their Ocean Youth journey by participating in a beach clean up event for Clean Up Australia Day, in conjunction with Operation Straw, Clean Up Australia and AUSMAP!!
After a briefing session, we split up into our groups.
Nicola, Will, Alicia, Yeowon and Elly got in the water with Operation Straw to help rid Manly of rubbish in the water. They found lots of types of plastics including straws, bottles, wrappers and cigarette butts. A group near us even retrieved a trolley!
As all the rubbish was being sorted and classified, a staggering 106 straws were found. So stoked they aren’t posing a risk to our marine life anymore.
Amber, Lewis and Grady worked with Ally from Clean up Australia / AUSMAP and learnt about the data collection that goes into researching microplastics and determining which locations are hotspots. We used various sieves to sort through a small area of sand to find microplastics and separate them. We then recorded our findings to be taken to a university to further classify the types of plastic we found.
We collected over 100 straws in a very small area, and over 1,000 pieces of rubbish overall. The usual suspects were prevalent, single use plastics, large and micro, coffee cups and food wrapping.
Some simple things we can all do to reduce the production and use of such litter is to use reusables – starting with coffee cups and water bottles. Once you do it a few times it becomes a habit and you can’t go without them.
Today was a great day of data collection and communities joining together to take positive action to secure the future health of our oceans.
