"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #beachcleanup #litter #trash #friends

We haven't had one beach clean up that we organised throughout these years where we haven't found any abandoned fishing gear. Do you wanna join us for a beach clean up? See our event tab.
All plastic in the oceans is harmful to marine life, but one type of plastic pollution is especially deadly - Fishing gear.
Why is it more deadly?
Fishing gear is designed to catch and kill marine life, and it continues to do that even when it is abandoned or lost at sea.
One abandoned fishing net can cause years or even decades of death and destruction. Around 300 sea turtles were discovered dead in a single incident in 2018, entangled in a ghost fishing net in Mexican waters. We must put a stop to this destruction of life in our oceans.

#northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic #plasticocean #beachcleanup #seaspiracy

Have you heard of the "latte levy"?
According to AlJazeeraEnglish , places like Ireland have started to trial something called "latte levy" in a bid to change consumer habits and cut the environmental impact from the use of single-use plastics. The idea is that instead of giving discount for BYO cups, which so many lovely cafes are already doing, the customer would PAY for the luxury of using a single-use cup, similar to what we're seeing with plastic bags!
Janet Salem, who has worked with UN in developing sustainable policies for over a decade, suggest that cafes could, for example, charge 50 cents extra for single-use cups. In this way, we will be setting a new norm by positioning BYO cups as the default.
What do you think about latte levy and would you cafe start this instead of the discount? Someone has to pay for the disposal of waste... Let us know in the comments!
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #takeaway #byocup #keepcup #plasticocean #trash #litter #beachcleanup #trashtag #plastic #saynotoplastic #plasticpollutes #plasticfree

A podcast about what we do and why we do it - AND what you can do
https://www.whatcanwedopodcast.com/.../northern-beaches...
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #beachcleanup #plasticfree

Researchers from the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Queensland set out to look at how much microplastic was in all forms of rice available to consumers. Research has found packs of instant rice contain up to 13 milligrams of microplastics, highlighting the need for more to be done to limit plastic content in food. Lead author Jake O’Brien said they found regular uncooked rice had about three to four milligrams of microplastics for every 100 grams of rice in the samples they tested, while that jumped to 13 milligrams for instant rice.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #plastic #rice

In Sweden and other countries where the tap water is perfectly drinkable , there really is no need to use bottled water – a source of unnecessary pollution and waste.
A few years ago, Sweden's second-biggest city Gothenburg introduced a sustainability label – Kranmärkt – to encourage businesses and organisations to use tap water instead of bottled water.
This movement would quickly catch on in many parts of Sweden. Since 2017, the Kranmärkt label is Sweden’s national sustainability label for businesses and organisations that choose tap water over bottled water.
Kranmärkt – which literally translates as ‘tap labelled’ – shows that you take a stand for a better environment and inspire others to also choose tap water.
It is indeed a label, not a certification! So participating businesses and organisations are responsible themselves for maintaining the standards of the label.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #sweden #tapwater #kranmärkt #water #plasticfree

Congratulations "Crew" - you, me, us. We are all the "Northern Beaches Clean Up Crew" - the ones who pick up litter, the ones who mumbles under our breath when we see those pesky, small, fish shaped containers filled with soy sauce, the ones who refuses coffee when we've forgotten our keep cup, the ones who brings our own bags when shopping, the ones who knows that bottled water is way more expensive than petrol, the ones who celebrates without balloons and are the ones who always keep on going. You never give up! Congratulations to all of you - you have all been highly commended tonight at the Northern Beaches Council's Eco Awards. We are proud of each and everyone of you and what an honour it is to have made so many friends along this journey
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #loveManly #beachcleanup #plasticfree

Are you a jerk?
Remarkably, there was no sign of dog poo along the pathway between the Pavilion Cafe & Bar and the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club yesterday.
Could this sign be working???
It looks to us like some vigilante got sick of seeing all the dog poop and dog poop bags along this path and created their own sign. What a legend!
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #beachcleanup

Thank you to ALL of you amazing people.
National Volunteer Week (NVW) is Australia's largest annual celebration of volunteers. From Monday 17th to Sunday 23rd May 2021
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #volunteer

In a river in the Danish city of Århus, a small machine called the WasteShark now autonomously sails through the water collecting trash, bringing it to shore, and then recharging itself. Soon, a drone will begin flying through the air to help: Using a special lens that collects data to be crunched by a machine learning algorithm, that drone can identify pieces of plastic or other garbage and direct the sailing drone to pick them up. The system can also identify oil spills, which the WasteShark can help clean up with a special filter.
While the small trash-eating drone isn’t new, the addition of the flying drone makes it possible to find more garbage more quickly. The sailing drone also hasn’t been used to clean up oil spills in the past, because without the drone overhead scanning the water, it wouldn’t be able to identify the oil.
This type of work isn’t a complete solution to our waste problem; stopping the flow of plastic waste into the ocean will require rethinking how products are packaged and sold and building better recycling infrastructure. But these types of tools can help governments better understand the scale of the challenge. And systems that catch trash in rivers, as the project in Denmark does, can be a final safeguard to stop plastic and other pollution before it drifts into the ocean, breaks down into tiny fragments, and ends up being eaten by fish or birds.
#northernbeachescleanupcrew #litter #trash #beachcleanup #saveouroceans