A group of volunteers has braved big swells and strong winds to clean-up some of the most remote beaches in Australia, smashing a record for the amount of garbage recovered. <\/p>\n
The week-long expedition involved three dozen people travelling on fishing boats to the rugged south-west of Tasmania to pick up mountains of rubbish, mostly plastics. <\/p>\n
The South West Marine Debris Cleanup, which is now in its 13th year and run by environmental scientist Matt Dell, is funded purely by donations and sponsorship. <\/p>\n
This year the clean-up set a record for most items collected, with 37,000 items picked up in one day and a total of just over 79,000 items for the week. <\/p>\n
Mr Dell said it was disappointing that the problem was getting worse. <\/p>\n
\"It's so obvious in this beautiful environment when there's rubbish lying around, it's supposed to be our jewel of the environment in Tasmania and it's pretty sad,\" he said. <\/p>\n
\"It has very, very open exposed beaches, they receive the highest wave energy of any of the beaches in Australia, and for that reason they're exposed and they collect a lot of rubbish.\" <\/p>\n
The volunteers started at Cox's Bight, a long rocky beach inside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area only accessible by light plane, a multi-day bushwalk or boat. <\/p>\n
On the beach they found soft drink and beer cans, household items like a tomato sauce bottle and microplastics. <\/p>\n
Mel Sheppard came from Queensland to pick up rubbish and said it was confronting to see what had washed up. <\/p>\n
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Volunteers brave winds, sea swells to collect a record amount of rubbish from Tasmanian beaches<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A group of volunteers has braved big swells and strong winds to clean-up some of the most remote beaches in Australia, smashing a record for the amount of garbage recovered. The week-long expedition involved three dozen people travelling on fishing boats to the rugged south-west of Tasmania to pick up mountains of rubbish, mostly plastics. Continue reading