Over the past five years, there has been a growing awareness amongst people who use the ocean, that plastic pollution is becoming a huge issue that needs to be tackled. Over the past 50 years plastic production has surged from 15 million tonnes in 1964 to 311 million tonnes in 2014. Unfortunately, the bulk of the world's population are blissfully unaware of the issue and continue to use increasing amounts of disposable plastics everyday. Whilst initiatives to reduce, recycle and reuse have had some success there is still a long way to go. Each year 8 million tonnes of plastic "leak" into the ocean and it doesn't go away, it simply accumulates. The best research available, suggests that at current leakage rates there will be more plastics than fish in the ocean by 2050.
This site has been compiled to raise awareness of the presence of plastics in the oceans and to promote initiatives that are trying to tackle the problem. The "Beach Surveys" section of the site contains a collection of photos taken on beaches around the world, recording the plastic that has been found. Data from the Australian beaches has been input to the Australian Marine Debris Initiative database. For further infomation on this database please click on the link below .
We have yet to find a plastic free beach.
This site has been compiled to raise awareness of the presence of plastics in the oceans and to promote initiatives that are trying to tackle the problem. The "Beach Surveys" section of the site contains a collection of photos taken on beaches around the world, recording the plastic that has been found. Data from the Australian beaches has been input to the Australian Marine Debris Initiative database. For further infomation on this database please click on the link below .
We have yet to find a plastic free beach.