With A massive coastline Australia prides itself on its beaches but a new study of the country’s dirtiest and cleanest beaches has revealed some surprising results.
Researchers from the lead scientific organisation, CSIRO, have spent two years surveying Australia’s entire coastline, counting rubbish on sections of sand and sea every 100 kilometres.
The survey of more than 175 beaches found the dirtiest beach in Australia was Border Village on the coast between Western Australia and South Australia.
This was typical of the study that found remote and hard to reach beaches were amongst Australia’s dirtiest.
Lead researcher Dr Denise Hardesty told ABC News the rubbish did not float in from polluted oceans abroad.
By using ocean current data and examining the items, researchers could tell much of the mess fell from the hands of ordinary Australians.
“In general most of what we find is from us,” Dr Hardesty said.
“No matter how remote you are, how close you are to an urban city, we leave our litter everywhere.”
Illegal dumping, irresponsible mariners and careless beachgoers are all to blame, she told ABC News.
As a result the researchers are suggesting increased regulation and enforcement, particularly of illegal dumping.
“We aren’t doing as well as we could, as we need to be doing, in terms of waste management,” Dr Hardesty said.
The CSIRO study estimates more than 150 million pieces of rubbish litter Australia’s sandy shores.
The most common item was plastic following rapid growth in global plastic production.
“More than three-quarters of what we find in terms of rubbish is plastic,” Dr Hardesty said.
This had a disastrous effect on some 600 marine species that then consumed what researchers have termed “plastic food”.
Dr Hardesty said she had found cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, pill bottles and bottle caps in the stomachs of birds.
“We open turtles that have died and see that they’re jammed full of plastics,” she said.
“I’ve found over 200 pieces of plastic in a single bird.”
Dr Hardesty said the final findings of the survey would be published later this year.
