Australians addicted to toxic plastics

If you are a regular visitor to your local beach then you've probably noticed more and more detritus.

Australia’s use of plastics has hit a record 4.2 million tonnes a year; and the oceans are paying the price.

Australians, it seems, prefer convenience over a pristine environment, figures provided by the Australian Marine Conservation Society suggest.

Australia uses a record 80,000 tonnes of plastic a week - the equivalent weight of one-and-a-half Sydney Harbour Bridges, and generates 1.2 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste every year – about 38kg every second.

In fact, Australians sets an unwanted record of using 4,189,600 tonnes of plastic products and packaging in 2024-25, according to the latest Australian plastics flows and fates report, surpassing the previous high set during the Covid-19 pandemic.

AMCS is calling for future reports, now released annually, to include data on plastic pollution – as was previously reported in the 2019-20 plastic flows report.

AMCS Plastics Campaigns Manager Cip Hamilton said: “If you left the tap on and flooded the bathroom, the first thing you’d do is try to cut the water supply. Instead, the government's approach to managing plastic is to just keep mopping while the tap gets turned up and up.

"The only way to end plastic pollution is to cut back on how much plastic is generated.

“The federal and state environment ministers all agreed packaging reform was needed in 2022, again in 2023, and again last Friday. Ministers can agree and agree all they like, but agreement is not stopping a single piece of plastic from reaching our ocean. We need action.

“Some problematic single-use items such as lightweight plastic shopping bags have declined following state bans, but the use of thicker plastic shopping bags and plastic produce bags has shot up. 

"State and territory bans have been a great start and can work, but item-by-item bans will always be one step behind, playing endless whack-a-mole against a rising tide of plastic overproduction.

"This is precisely why we need strong national packaging laws that mandate reductions, set design standards and make companies responsible for the packaging they use.

“Our homes, our waterways, our beaches, and our ocean are drowning under a flood of plastic. Plastic entangles, starves, smothers and poisons marine life. Across Australia, sea turtle hatchlings have hundreds of pieces of plastic in their guts, seals and dolphins are being strangled, and our beloved corals are being suffocated."

Image: Colleen Hughson via BeachPatrol