An environment group has joined up with Indigenous rangers to strip tonnes of plastic waste from the Territory coastline. But the work provides only temporary relief, so they're calling on federal government to slow the rapid production of plastic. Sea Shepherd is appealing to Australia to consider adopting taxes on plastics production, like those seen in the UK and other European countries.
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00:00Off the Arnhem Land coast, the beaches of Elko Island are littered with plastic waste.
00:07The clean-up for this indigenous ranger group is a depressing task. They're worried about
00:12animals and microplastics filling the fish we eat.
00:16The turtle sees the plastic and they think it's a giant jellyfish or something and they
00:21go for it.
00:22The rangers have welcomed the help of environment group volunteers who've come from across the
00:27country as part of their annual northern coastline clean-up program. In just one week, they've
00:33removed seven tonnes.
00:36Big thanks to the Sea Shepherd crew who came along and helping us doing beach clean-up
00:43because like I said, it is a big job.
00:48Much of the plastic has drifted south from Asia.
00:51But those countries have our rubbish going to them. So it's a global problem. It's not
00:57an Indonesian problem. It's made by Western companies.
01:01The United Nations estimates that 11 million tonnes of plastic goes into the sea each year.
01:07That's 220 billion of these water bottles.
01:11So environment groups are arguing that Australia should start taxing the production of any
01:16plastic that doesn't include recycled material in line with Spain, Italy and the UK.
01:24If we were recycling them and then making recycled plastics cheaper than virgin plastics,
01:28I think we'd see the plastic producers globally look at making reusable and other options.
01:34The federal environment minister says she's working with state governments on new rules
01:39to ensure all packaging in Australia is designed to be reused or recycled. And there will be
01:46mandatory targets for recycled content.
01:50But until those come in, this clean-up provides just a temporary reprieve.
01:55The sad thing about it is that it's going to keep coming.
01:58The partners hope their efforts will inspire others to care.
02:02And it starts with you, a single person.