Styrofoam balls heading from Undercliff road towards Freshwater Beach. Thousands and thousands of these balls are found at the southern end of Freshie beach. We tried to clean up as many as we could last month but it's "Mission Impossible" to get them all. Are these balls coming from discarded bean bags, commercial packaging or ?
Styrofoam is to made from polystyrene and it's non-biodegradable and appears to last forever. It’s resistant to photolysis, or the breaking down of materials by photons originating from light. This, combined with the fact that Styrofoam floats, means that large amounts of polystyrene have accumulated along coastlines and waterways around the world. It is considered a main component of marine debris and it's often mistaken as food by animals.
Northern Beaches Council, we really need your help here. This is a big problem for our pristine beaches and fragile marine life.
Pic by: Mathew Baker

The Malaysian government will send back up to 100 tonnes of Australian plastic waste because it was too contaminated to recycle, but will not yet name the companies responsible. On Tuesday, Malaysia’s environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, announced that 3,000 tonnes of waste, sent from around the world, would be returned because it was either rotting, contaminated, or had been falsely labelled and smuggled in.
Recycling sent from Australia, Yeo said, included plastic bottles that were “full of maggots”. Yeo said Malaysia had become a “dumping ground” for rubbish that was harming its environment. Up to 60 containers of subpar recycling would be returned to their country of origin “without mercy”, she said. Some were so contaminated they could not be recycled, while others had been illegally shipped in, or mislabelled.
“Malaysia will not be the dumping ground of the world,” Yeo said. “We will fight back. Even though we are a small country, we can’t be bullied by 

Another product wrapped in plastic that we can easily survive without. ​From Coles.

In a 2012 study from the University of Queensland, Balloons were identified as being disproportionately consumed by sea turtles based on commonality of balloons as litter on Queensland beaches. In other words, the study found that sea turtles specifically target balloons. In fact, of all rubber items found inside of deceased sea turtles, 78% were balloons or balloon fragments. They concluded that sea turtles were consuming balloons to such a large degree due to their similarity in appearance to jellyfish which is a prey all sea turtles eat.
Ingestion of balloons and plastic can cause ‘float syndrome’ in sea turtles – a painful and often lethal condition where gasses form in the digestive tract around the consumed garbage. This causes the animal to float, making them vulnerable to boat strike, shark predation, accumulation of barnacles, sunburn, and unable to dive down for food or protection. Many ultimately die a slow death by starvation.
“Biodegradable” balloons is just a marketing gimmick to get people to buy the product. Natural latex may be biodegradable, but after adding chemicals, plasticizers and artificial dyes, how natural could it be? It may degrade after several years, but it’s surely not “biodegradable.”
Another claim is that so-called “biodegradable” latex balloons take the same amount of time to decompose as an oak leaf does. This is very misleading; oak leaves are very durable and can take four years to decompose! That means the balloons have plenty of time to injure or kill.

Well, this is pretty shocking!❗
This plastic bag, possibly 30 years old, was recently found in mangroves in the Brisbane bayside suburb of Wynnum.
Still intact! 

The kitchen is one room in the home that can contain a host of reusable items... is there anything you would add to this list? ​

So here it is...after peeled oranges we now have peeled cooking bananas (plantains). Four of them sealed in plastic. Can we swear? Are we allowed to swear? Will I offend people if I swear? ​

Imagine that...

Maybe we're late to discover this but it's the first time we've seen nail polish with no plastic lid. Discovered these gems at Manly Health Foods. The brand is cruelty free and vegan too. ​

A baby dolphin was found stranded on a Florida beach but despite efforts to help the creature, biologists decided it was already too late to save the animal. The rough-toothed dolphin looked emaciated when it was found on the shore of Fort Myers Beach on April 23. Rescue workers tried to save the calf but it was in such poor condition, they decided to euthanize it. It turns out the marine mammal consumed objects that may have contributed to its death. Biologists from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation's (FFWC), who conducted necropsy of the creature, found two plastic bags and a piece of balloon in the dolphin's stomach.
The preliminary findings nonetheless underscore current problems with plastic waste. Plastic in the ocean pose risk to cetaceans and marine life. Direct health impacts include dietary dilution, gut blockage, starvation, laceration, ulceration, and secondary infection.

Aimee Tollan cycled 1 mile to the library in London today. Look at this mess left behind by the London Marathon.She stopped to speak to a road sweeper who told her all the kerbside litter will go into landfill. The only recycling was from the drink/water stations. She watched him sweep mixed litter into bags. Seriously wrong. Zoom in on the bus lane pic and see how far up the road they go just in this section. Thank you lovely Aimee for your pics and for getting off your bike to find out what’s going on. London Marathon used 700,000 plastic bottles and 200,000 edible seaweed pods. ​