To wrap up 2022, the Surfrider South Coast team are joining the incredible volunteers from the Disabled Surfers Association South Coast at Thirroul Beach on Saturday, December 3 at 9am.
We are asking all of our readers and ocean-loving community to come and give a hand to share the stoke, and surf with people of all abilities. We need your help to make this day great for those who don’t normally get into the surf.
As a part of the day’s events, we will be running a beach clean to celebrate Ocean Care Day.
Students from the University of Wollongong will be conducting a micro-plastic beach analysis on the day as a part of our regular beach clean.
Come and join us at Thirroul beach. This could be the most rewarding day you’ll ever spend at the beach and in the surf.
Call for policy change after REDcycle failure
The collapse of the REDcycle soft plastic recycling scheme has left shoppers bewildered and millions of plastic bags stored in warehouses, but on a positive note, it has made many people rethink their relationship with plastic packaging.
The responsibility to protect the environment should not be placed solely on the individual, nor should the onus be on the shopper to find alternatives to plastic when the majority of foods available for purchase come packaged in plastic.
The majority of Australians agree that in order to create a cleaner future we should recycle, however, the government and industry should support the community by creating adequate opportunities and enforcing mandatory recycled content laws.
Because plastic is produced from byproducts of the gas and oil extraction, it’s a huge money spinner for the fossil fuel industry. The fossil fuel corporations and plastic producers must be taxed so high that it’s not profitable to produce unnecessary plastics but, most importantly, they should be forced to take back all of their plastic waste and made to ‘recycle’ it effectively.
All governments must put a value on the price of plastic waste and rewrite policies to protect nature and us. A truly circular economy would have the producers, who make the plastic, take it back.
Effective recycling would mean that our plastic garbage would have a value, instead of being garbage. We have to start demanding governmental policy change, stop buying stuff wrapped in plastic and, whenever you can, REFUSE plastic.
