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Plastic in Plastic

On the eve of the Beyond Plastic Pollution conference in Sydney, I was moved to write about my recent experiences with pollution in the Pacific Ocean.

The idea behind sailing with my family to the Great Barrier Reef was to let my kids see it before it was too damaged by climate change, overfishing, pollution and cyclones. We were expecting the worst, but honestly, there was very little pollution all the way between Sydney and Cairns, and the reef showed signs of resilience in some unexpected places. All Queensland registered boats have to have a sticker stating that plastic pollution is illegal and we were telling the kids the turtles would eat their rubbish and die, so they were very conscientious.

Our positive experience could be due to better catchment management and more litter collection traps, it could be people getting better at not throwing stuff away - the Take 3 initiative was noticeable in the marinas and some shops. But it could be none of those and it could be the ocean currents moving the floating rubbish away from our beaches and into the rest of the pacific.

The hardest part for us was managing the packaging that came with our food and other supplies when we went away from land for weeks at a time. Everything these days comes in layers of plastic and cardboard packaging and additional little bits - like bagged cereals in boxes, resealable packs with a small piece of plastic you have to cut off, the locking strip around a yoghurt pot, the inner seal on a milk bottle. A razor I saw had more plastic in the packaging than the product, hence the beard.

At the shops, there were signs like this classic turtle pic but at the same shop they were bagging everything anyway...?

We separated everything and reduced the actual amount of waste coming on board pretty well through smarter shopping but when we got to a marina, the separated bins were overwhelmed with rubbish from all the other boats that didn't take the time and effort needed to properly separate things.

It's even harder on a daily level, buying a juice at the cafe, there is a straw wrapped in plastic. Right there is a clear plastic piece you have to rip to get to the straw, throw that away, use the straw for 5 minutes, then throw that away. Plastic wrapped in plastic.

Your coffee order is written on the plastic lid so you have to have that and if you ask not to, they throw it away anyway. One of the best is putting products with handles built into the packaging into plastic bags, like large water bottles, chickens, toilet paper and triple wrapping veges!

The packaging industry is making changes and there is a big move to collecting and recycling more waste into products, which will be a feature of the conference. So far still to go but also, not too bad in the Queensland ocean.

But actual recycling and land fill are different stories.

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