An Aussie grandmother who spends most of her spare time picking up garbage on her local beaches says she’s often astonished by what she finds, but never more so than when she discovered almost intact novelty plastic bottles which would be more than 50 years old on the shore. The containers — which once contained sugary cordial — haven’t been sold in decades.
Sydney environmental campaigner Suzanne Casement said she and her daughter-in-law Chrissy, who often helps with the clean-ups, have picked up 30 to 40 of the plastic bottles from a stretch of coastline known as ‘The Beach’ near the city’s airport at Mascot.
“It’s crazy,” Casement told Yahoo News Australia. “I remember them from when I was a child. There’s so much rubbish there some days. It’s pretty depressing.”
The ageing containers — which are sure to awaken childhood nostalgia for some older Australians — were shaped like hand grenades, kangaroos, submarines and Fred Flintstone characters. Back in the day, they had snap-off lids, which are long gone.
Some even had measurements in fluid ounces — making them up to 54 years old, as Australia began transitioning to the metric system between 1970 and 1988. Many had small holes, indicating where they had decayed into microplastics which are often mistaken for food by birds, fish and turtles.
Plastic can stick around for centuries
Cip Hamilton, plastics campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, told Yahoo News: “The big problem with plastic is we often use it for minutes or even seconds, but it can stick around for decades or centuries”.
“Once it’s entered our environment, it does not really go away. Over time, it has the potential to break into smaller pieces and fragment into microplastics.”
Hamilton said Australia was the world’s second largest consumer of plastic per capita and industry bodies needed to provide better options.
“At the moment, it’s really challenging for individuals to even shop for fruit and vegetables without it containing plastic packaging,” she added.
Dangerous debris found in the sand on Sydney beaches
Casement has also warned beachgoers to keep their “eyes opened” saying she’s found a lot of dangerous debris including hundreds of syringes during her voluntary daily clean-ups over the past eight years on popular Sydney tourist beaches including Coogee.
She said she recently came across needles – and the black box containers used to safely dispose of them – discarded in the sand at La Perouse in the city’s eastern suburbs.
“No beach escapes them,” she said, “I’ve found hundreds of needles in my time picking rubbish. The black box is usually given to people who use a lot of needles and they’ve been discarded instead of returned for proper disposal.”
Casement said another problem was old fishing lines and hooks that could ensnare or tangle up wildlife.
“A week ago at Coogee, I saw a seagull who has likely gone to eat the leftover bait on the hook and it’s now embedded in his beak,” she told Yahoo. “The poor guy wouldn’t let me get close enough to help.”
‘Up to all of us’ to protect our oceans, council says
A Randwick City Council spokesperson told Yahoo News that rubbish from Greater Sydney flowed through rivers and waterways and washed up onto beaches along the coastline.
“It’s up to all of us – regardless of where we live – to do our bit to protect our oceans and beaches by disposing of our rubbish responsibly,” they said.
The spokesperson said the council mechanically raked every beach in Randwick City with a tractor removing over 200 tonnes of rubbish and excess seaweed every year that washes up, while staff did spot cleans to remove dangerous items such as syringes.
They said littering was an offence and rangers can issue fines of between $160 and $5000, while anyone who finds syringes in a public place can call the Needle Cleanup Hotline on 1800 633 353.
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