Marine debris is a complex issue. Heidi Tait from the Tangaroa Blue Foundation says ‘If all we do is clean-up, that’s all we’ll ever do’. Tangaroa Blue’s Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) is a network of like-minded individuals who use clean-up activities to collect data, identify the source of marine debris, and work on solutions to stop pollution at the source. Find out more about AMDI and how you can get involved!
The Australian Marine Debris Initiative, in more details.
The AMDI is an on-ground network of volunteers, communities, organisations, and partners that contribute to the AMDI Database. The end goal of the database is to work on solutions to stop the flow of litter at the source.
The AMDI uses clean-up activities to collect scientifically robust data which helps identify sources of marine debris. The next step is to identify the release process of a particular type of marine debris item. To finish, the right stakeholders are engaged to find what needs to change to prevent the release in the future.
The change can be in design, use, compliance, education/awareness, material type, or infrastructure. Then, the source reduction plan is implemented accompanied by further clean-ups and data collection. This in order to monitor the impact of the change. Did it work? Does it need tweaking? Or, do we need to start from the beginning? Those are the type of questions that follows to make sure the right plan is in place.
This needs to be a scalable model using local community, state, national and international networks. To goal is to develop and roll out the source reduction plans. Marine debris is complex, therefore we need a framework that includes a variety of solutions.
The AMDI helps communities look after their coastal environment by providing resources and support programs. Another important aspect is collaborations with industry and government to create change on a large scale.
Through the AMDI network, more than 16 million items have been removed from the environment. Each debris is recorded in the AMDI Database. Volunteers involved across these events have contributed more than AUD 12.3 million worth of volunteer hours. This AMDI data has then been used to create and monitor over 250 source reduction plans. Those plans prevent specific items from entering the marine environment in the future.
Tangaroa Blue in 4 questions.
Can you tell us about your organisation?
Heidi: It started as a really small community and initiatives in Western Australia. We were really surprised at the amount of plastic that we were finding washing up on beaches that were in National Parks and also the wide variety of sources of what we were finding. There was local little stuff that it’d been left by people there, but we’re also finding international source debris from both commercial fisheries and cargo-ships the pass close to the coast. The question originated early on as to why is it here? What needs to change to stop it from occurring again?
We held a big community clean up over one day and collect it a lot of data on what people were finding. Following, we held a workshop, and we pick one item that we were able to find a solution to with the support of a commercial fishing body and also the department of fisheries in West Australia.
It gave us a proof of concept citizen science data could be used to facilitate change. The key was getting the right stakeholders together. It meant that now we had a model that we could replicate.
Over the next 16 years, we’ve become national. We now have organisations in other countries, and we’re also using the methodology in our database. It’s been able to connect not only citizen scientists and community members but the industry bodies, local businesses, and all levels of government. We know that marine debris is such a complex issue. This is the reason we need a comprehensive stakeholder group if we’re going to do all the things that need to change to find solutions.
Why did you create The Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI)?
Heidi: AMDI was developed because we had little projects in the south-west corner of WA, another project happening up in far North Queensland, and down and Victoria. We decided we needed an umbrella program that all of these projects could fit under. The Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI) became that umbrella program. It became a platform for organisations and community groups to connect. We wanted to make sure that data was being collected in a consistent way. Indeed, there were so many different data sets and data methodologies… That meant database A couldn’t speak to database B. So, this was about trying to bring all the stakeholder groups onto the same page. As a result, data could be housed, collected, and used with the greatest alignment within those methodologies.
Can you tell us how your action take shape?
Heidi: It starts by ensuring that we have a scalable model. You want something that can be used by local community groups as well on an international platform. We have created a database that helps us identified sources.
When you look at the different categories, and there are over 140 categories in the database, those categories were designed to try and help us track a debris item back to where its release point happened. So, by training people and providing resources for community members and other partner organisations to understand how those categories get developed and recorded, it means then that we have a database that can be used it all levels. It can be used by the government or by local community projects. It can also help address debris items on an international scale. It’s about identifying at what scale each of those particular debris items should be best dealt with. Then, you need to find the right stakeholders to bring together for those solutions.
Who are the members of your association?
Heidi: So, we have a framework where we have as a registered charity. We have a board of directors composed of 7 people, my position which is the CEO (run the day-to-day operations) and then we have a team that based around Australia. Those team members connect with their local communities (community groups, individuals, schools, indigenous ranger teams, local businesses and all levels of government). Tangaroa Blue is also composed of members and AMDI partners. There are actually over 1600 different organisations that have contributed to AMDI’s database.
It’s showing how collectively we can create something that very difficult for one organisation to do on its own. Technically, Tangaroa Blue is just another partner of the AMDI’s network. We just help to coordinate and hosting it for as many collaborative partners as we can.
Marine Plastic pollution in Australia.
What do you think is the worst type of marine plastics affecting Australia’s oceans?
Heidi: When we look at the data in the AMDI database, it shows us that there is not just one thing that is the problem. When you look at it at a regional scale, they all have different problems.
For instance, if you to the very tip of Cape York, what is washing up on the beach and impacting the environment is different from what you find on a beach at Port Philip Bay. We need to look at solutions at regional-scale.
In remote areas, it is particularly challenging. First, to reach the plastic that has washed up there and then to collect it as it is fragmented. They don’t have the capacity with their council clean-ups, with community groups, with people just walking every day and picking up a couple of pieces.
In a some the remote cleanups that we’re doing in Cape York, we spend a week at a time with a team of volunteers and work with the indigenous communities and the rangers. Often, we can pick up a bottle that looks intact and as soon as you put your finger on – it’s fragmented into a gazillion pieces! Once in pieces, it’s so difficult, expensive and time-consuming to remove. Hence, the challenge is trying to get debris as quickly as you can or as close to the sources as you can. That way, it doesn’t turn into this additional layer of microplastics which as previously said, has massive complexities around its removal.
The longevity of plastic is the problem, it is a convenient material and this is why we use it. But once it is released in the environment and not collected, the complexity around dealing with it just becomes 10 times worst.
Where do you collect the most plastics in Australia?
Those remote areas are quite chocking.
We just come back from doing our annual helicopter survey which surveys the area from Cooktown up to the tip of Cape York. We are flying low and slow, and we’re grading the debris loads. There are a couple of places inaccessible via road/boat, and some of those areas had between 1 and 2 tons per kilometer of debris. That can be doubled again after a significant weather event such as a cyclone that could move marine plastic from a certain area of the ocean into a new type of trade wind. So all of a sudden we get debris that we normally wouldn’t get because it’s been shifted.
Also, the off-shore Islands – We work with the community on Cocos Keeling Island and Christmas Island. Certain beaches with particular direction can accumulate debris due to the windmill seasonal pattern. We removed a close to 1.5 ton on a 70-meter beach on Christmas Island.
Are you able to recycle any of the plastic collected during your clean up activities?
Heidi: Yes, close to urban areas it is easy. There, most of the debris is fairly new, not contaminated, and clean enough to go into your normal recycle systems. Beverages containers can go through their container deposit scheme. That’s not too challenging.
It’s when we get to these remote communities that it gets difficult. There is no waste management infrastructure and it’s too expensive to transport to places where it can be recycled. We don’t want to remove marine debris from a beach in remote Cape York and just move it to a community that has no way to deal with it either. That’s just creating another layer of problems.
So, we do try and recycle as much as we can with our partnership network. We take the PET and other hard plastic remnants put them in bulk bags, and clean them. Also, because of our data collection system, we have an amazing opportunity to separate debris per categories. We end up with these big one-tonne bulk bags that we feel with different types of items. Then, our network of partners trips these out of Cape York. AMDI also have partners to help us with the bailing and the compressing. We are looking for recycling partners too. Our partners change as technology changes. At the moment and it’s difficult to find someone in Australia that can take it because it is quite brittle.
We’re hoping investment in recycling enables materials to be recycled. They might not have been suitable for recycling in the past. This because of their quality, but it might change with new technology.
Our big problem with these remote areas is even if Australia had the best marine debris policies on the planet, which we don’t, we don’t have any, we are still going to have a marine debris problem because our neighbours aren’t doing the right thing as well. Ocean currents will continue to bring this hopefully resource that will be looking at in the future. We’ll be able to deal with it because it won’t be a waste problem anymore because will have the technology to be able to use it as a resource.
More than collection plastics you are also collecting data. So, what is the value of these data?
Heidi: The value of these data is that can be used again and again. It can be used to identify those issues. As I mentioned we have very different debris impacting different parts of Australia. One solution that works for one area may not work across the country. The data enables us to say “well what should we be looking at in certain areas?”. Once we know that we can start working on source reduction plans and strategies to understand the loss of that particular debris into the environment.
We can bring the right stakeholders together, and then we can implement something that stopped at the source. But, we also need to make sure we nailed it. So, the ongoing data collection post-source-reduction plan or strategy and able to see whether we got it right. To see whether it still needs tweaking, what impact did it have and creates a whole system of learning. Then we can evaluate if the project can be replicated in other areas.
One of the projects that we’ve been working on is based in Victoria. It is a plastics industry program called Operation Clean Sweep®. This program was developed by the US plastics industry in 1992 and still wasn’t being rolled out in Australia.
We know through the plastics and transportation industry that we’re losing a lot of this raw feedstock from the plastic industry through plastic resin pellets and flake. It is happening because of bad housekeeping practices during handling. By bringing this to Australia and working with industry bodies (Chemistry Australia, APCO, and some industry leaders) who have all signed on to do the program; we start now to see the reduction of plastic resin pallet lost. And this, because we’ve been out of figure out exactly at what point these items are getting lost into the environment. Then, we can implement strategies to stop that and continue to monitor the impact into the future.
What can be done to help?
Heidi: The public needs to make noise. We have something in our wallet called money and businesses want our money. We need to consume a little bit more with care. Don’t accept what you don’t want to buy, find somewhere else where you can buy that from. More importantly, support those businesses that are trying to be innovative and trying to do the right thing.
The more request those businesses get, the bigger that they can build and the more impact that they can have. It’s really important that we think where we actually in best our dollars as individuals and who we vote for.
Moreover, it’s really important not to just name and shame. We need to name and fame as well. So, let people know when people are doing a good job and not just complaining about a bad job. There are lots of those little things everyone can do.
Tangaroa Blue needs more people collecting data and removing debris. Data is evidence, and we need evidence to push for change. We need to show proof as to why we want things to change. The data is just doing that.
Currently, one of the most important data sets is done along the east coast of Australia. AMDI is monitoring the impact of state policies. Those policies include plastic bags ban, container refunds, and deposit schemes. They were put in place to reduce debris and increase recycling. We want to know whether those policies are working. Unfortunately, state, local government, and more generally Australia, invest a lot of money in those schemes, strategies, and policies. But there’s no monitoring to see their impact.
It is a message to all the people out there that picks up rubbish from their environment. You can take that next step and become citizen scientists by contributing to the AMDI Database. We can use those data as evidence. I always say that the team contributing to the AMDI database is no longer rubbish collectors, but, Marine Debris CSI team. And because we have the details, the evidence, we can track to the source, and we can push for change.
In a few words, the more the AMDI network grows and the more collaborations take place; then the more change at a larger scale is possible. If everyone is doing a bit even imperfectly, it is better than not doing it at all. Each one of us, supporters, innovators, government bodies, etc can help this movement.
Last but not least, Heidi has a message for our community. Don’t get overwhelmed into ‘doing nothing’. Make it a challenge and make it fun. Then you’ve got a much better chance of success.
So, we encourage any of our readers to support Tangaroa Blue, by visiting and sharing their social media. Take action today!
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