Meal:  The world’s biggest schnitzel, salad and chips. 

Your correspondent turned up late and missed all the reports.  Apologies to all.

Our guest speaker was Colleen Hughson from Beach Patrol 3280-3284.  Beach Patrol is an Australia-wide network of volunteers who conduct monthly beach clean ups as well as independent beach cleans.  The local 3280-3284 group has 338 official members and many more friends on Facebook. 

Marine plastic pollution impacts on wildlife, human health and the appearance of our beaches.  Beach Patrol not only collects plastic waste but they also sort, count and photograph the rubbish that they collect.  This has helped to improve the data that we have on litter, which historically in Victoria has been absent.  The Litter Stopper App is an excellent way of recording this data.

Beach Patrol’s data shows that most of the plastic on our beaches is from our sewage outfall, lost commercial fishing gear and items discarded overboard from commercial shipping.  The most common contaminant was nurdles, followed by hard plastic remnants, fishing ropes and nets, cotton bud sticks, and then bottle lids. 

Beach Patrol use the data that they collect to try to achieve change and reduce sources of plastic pollution.  For example, Beach Patrol’s Better Buds campaign endeavored to ban plastic cotton bud sticks as they had identified this as a large source of beach pollution.  This campaign was successful, and plastic cotton bud sticks are now banned in Victoria.

We thank Colleen for taking the time to talk to us.  The Beach Patrol is a fantastic group and an effective project.  It certainly provides food for thought for our club.