By Kathryn Willis (University of Tasmania), Britta Denise Hardesty (CSIRO), Chris Wilcox (CSIRO) and Joanna Vince (University of Tasmania)
It’s common to hear about large amounts of plastic waste
floating around our oceans. But while the problem of plastic waste is growing
globally, in Australia it’s going the other way.
This is because most plastic rubbish we find on Australia’s
beaches comes from us, not
from other
countries. Our new study shows
local efforts in waste management have worked, reducing coastal litter by 29%
over the last six years.
We found the greatest reductions in litter in the
environment when it was simpler to access bins or when people were motivated
through economic measures. In essence, these actions either save time or money
for people trying to dispose of waste appropriately.
What doesn’t work? Awareness raising without tools or
infrastructure to back it up. Messages and reminders don’t work if there are no
options at hand.
Global issue, local solutions
Plastic pollution is a global crisis harming wildlife, economies and
livelihoods. The recent signing of the Global
Plastics Treaty has added momentum to the world’s efforts to cut the
estimated 6-12 million tonnes
of plastic waste entering our oceans every year.
But we still know little about practical ways of cutting the
amount of plastic entering the environment outside of rhetorical campaigns to
ban plastic.
To find out what works, we focused on local governments.
Councils are well placed to tackle the problem, as they are typically at the
coal face of waste management. Councils collect and dispose of our waste while
also dealing with illegal dumping and litter.
We undertook 563 litter surveys across 183 beaches in 32
local governments. From this, we identified actions with the largest effect on
reducing coastal litter. Then we used three established theories of human
behaviour to try to understand what makes these local actions successful.
In short, we found the most successful actions either saved
time or money for people and local governments trying to dispose of waste in
the right way.
We found that, in isolation, efforts to control plastic
waste by targeting personal and social norms in the community did not reduce
plastic litter on local beaches. This suggests a narrow focus on raising
awareness will not work. But when awareness efforts are combined with tools and
infrastructure, they become more effective.
Directly involving community members in clean-up activities
like Clean Up Australia
Day, or programs focusing on dumping and littering also helped keep our
coastlines cleaner. Such programs encouraged people to watch for and report
litterbug behaviour through hotlines.
Changing how we think of plastic
To keep reducing waste around Australia, we need to
transform our relationship with plastic. If we stop viewing plastic as a
disposable commodity and start recognising its value, it will become something
too good to throw away.
One of the biggest positive local government changes we saw
was the shift towards collecting different streams of household waste and
recycling. Local governments and the public are moving away from a collect and
dump mindset to a reduce, sort and improve approach.
Many Australian households now have three or four bins to
separate glass,
green waste (often with food
scraps) and paper from
their general waste and mixed recycling. These bins not only make it easier for
us to separate and discard our waste properly, but well-separated waste and
recycling streams make it easier for local governments to produce revenue from
rubbish.
With Australia’s recent ban
on waste exports, better waste management holds clear benefits for people,
communities, businesses and the environment.
Tackling litter-prone areas
Although litter is now declining along our beaches, we still
have a long way to go. We’ve found high levels of plastic near our major cities and
along remote coastlines,
such as the west coast of Tasmania and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Pollution in
remote areas is largely due to lost and discarded fishing gear washed up in
remote areas.
By contrast, we can do a lot more to tackle hotspots closer
to home, such as waterways and
bushland near major population centres.
In Australia, we find more litter in socially and
economically disadvantaged
neighbourhoods as well as along our highways and in car parks and
retail strips. By contrast, we find less in areas we associate with higher
aesthetic and cultural values such as beaches and parks.
Interestingly, economically disadvantaged areas seem
to benefit the most from
container deposit schemes and other economic incentives. These incentives
appear to shift the behaviour of litterers and create an incentive to collect
containers left in the environment.
It is encouraging to know we are the main source of plastic
on our beaches. We have the power to change what happens locally. We don’t have
to wait for global-scale action on plastics.
On this front, Australia has changed quickly and for the
better. Our local governments and environmental groups can guide us to make
wise decisions on waste.
This article first appeared in The Conversation.
Local interventions reduce plastic pollution in the environment. Author supplied