My Beach Rubbish Experiment

Hello, my name is Mia and I’m reporting on how much rubbish I found on a beach this summer. I visited One Mile Beach, Port Stephens, NSW with my family and some friends. At a glance the beach looked beautiful and I did not notice any rubbish. After spending a few days playing on the beach I saw that there was litter from a drink carton. Then I noticed a few more bits, and more, and more. All this on a beach that looked extremely clean. So, I asked my mum if she would come with me on a walk to pick up the rubbish. She said, ‘Yes, of course’.

The next day we set out early in the morning with a bag on a walk to hunt for rubbish. On the way we picked up icy pole wrappers, chip packets, bottles, cans, a thong, an insole, a dummy, a broken spade, cigarette butts, polystyrene, bottle lids, plastic bags and much more. We even found used fireworks. The bag was overflowing with rubbish.

We took the rubbish back to photograph it and then disposed of it safely. People at the caravan park were interested in what we had found. Locals said that they do not like all the rubbish that people leave on the beach. When we returned to the beach later that day we saw even more rubbish. There were bins there that people could have put the rubbish into.

The rubbish is bad. Every year about six million tonnes of rubbish are dumped into our oceans. 80% of this is plastic. It is estimated that the rubbish kills one million seabirds and 100,000 sea mammals, such as turtles and whales. These animals mistake the rubbish for food and can eat it or get entangled in it. They get serious injuries and can die. Even small pieces of plastic can be very harmful to fish and seabirds. Some seabirds have been found dead with lots of rubbish in their stomach.

Chemicals in plastics can poison animals that swallow it. If an animal eats plastic and dies, it will decompose, but the plastic inside it will not. So another animal can come along and eat the plastic and it can kill all over again.

Cigarette butts can cause marine life serious digestive problems that can kill. Cigarette filters also contain toxic chemicals such as lead, which can leach out into the water and harm marine life. Some of these fish are in our food chain!

So, next time you’re at the beach remember to take your rubbish with you and put it in a bin or take it home. You could also ask an adult to help you collect rubbish on a beach.

You can also make a positive difference by getting involved in Clean Up Australia Day. For more information visit www.cleanup.org.au