Australian Academy of Science demands overhaul of plastic pollution research methods

21 Feb 2023 --- The Australian Academy of Science is calling for the government to rebuild its approach to plastic pollution, warning there is a need for consistent data and an over-reliance on volunteer collection.

The academy wants more regular surveys that have a consistent approach and are collated in a national plastic pollution database. “Data on the scale and movement of plastic pollution is fragmented.” 

Additionally, academy members have submitted a House Inquiry into plastic pollution in Australia’s oceans and waterways. It urges recognition that not all plastics share the same properties and, therefore, should be treated respectively. 

Regarding data monitoring for the country’s waterways, the academy wants to establish a national monitoring protocol and plastic pollution database with a sustained multidisciplinary research agenda. 

Ross Headifen, co-owner of Bigone, Australian biodegradable plastic company, tells PackagingInsights that Australia's plastic pollution “it is not reported on any scale.” The idea of  “if a problem is not reported then no one knows much about it, seems to prevail here.” He continues that Australia has a large plastic waste problem, with “very little regulation and very little responsibility put back on producers.”

Australias National Plastics Plan aims to increase recycling and find alternatives to plastics for less harmful plastic waste in the country’s environment. Unified plastic database
Professor Chennupati Jagadish, the president of the Australian Academy of Science, told The Guardian: “Just as we have national monitoring systems for emissions, outdoor air quality and wastewater for drugs or COVID-19, it should be possible to identify some points to measure the amount of plastics entering our waterways to get a more complete and regular picture.”

The group endorses the continued development and enactment of the National Plastic Plan as a step toward a comprehensive national strategy to reduce plastic pollution.

The National Plastics Plan aspires to “partner with organizations to establish a national monitoring protocol and database for plastic pollution.” However, it remains unclear what action has been taken toward this step. 

Frustrations build
The academy calls for the Australian government to adopt a national database for plastic waste. “The committee should highlight this and urge the establishment of a national monitoring protocol and plastic pollution database as a matter of critical importance.”

It recommends that Australia use data and maintains databases from multiple NGOs that have been collected on a local level. 

BeachPatrol, a volunteer group that cleans beaches in Victoria log its discovered plastic waste in the a LitterStopper app, which feeds into a litter collection database and the State Department Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning’s LitterWatch. The volunteers have spent years maintaining its database of plastic pollution.

“In BeachPatrol we did a beach plastic litter sampling every day for five years to identify what the items were, their frequency of being littered, seasonal effects and yearly trends. It was just as bad on the 5th year (2021) as it was on the first,” continues Headifen, a BeachPatrol member. 

Colleen Hughson, the co-leader of the group, told The Guardian she was frustrated that years of data collected by her group hadn’t fed into national studies of plastic pollution and marine debris. Any national database should build on the hard work of volunteers, not replace it, she said.

“All the data is publicly available… about 1.5 million pieces of plastic have been recorded on here now.  We use this to illustrate the size of the problem and to identify the more common littered plastic items to hopefully drive policy on plastic use,” adds Headifen.

Plastic “does not respect borders” Australian Academy of Science fears for plastic pollution in Austrlias waterways.
The National Plastics Plan wants to increase plastic recycling which the academy says will require additional infrastructure and behavioral change, particularly as Australia moves toward a circular economy. 

The plan wants Australia to reduce plastic waste and increase recycling rates, find alternatives to unnecessary plastics and reduce the number of plastics impacting its environment.

To do so, it suggests phasing out the most problematic plastics, bringing in legislation to ensure Australia takes responsibility for its plastic waste, investing to increase recycling capacity and finding new recycling technologies and alternatives to plastic.

However regarding alternatives to plastics Headifen calls out compostable solutions, telling us “compostable plastic is not a solution. Is it not recyclable so it just perpetuates the linear economy.”

Furthermore, the academy asserts that addressing plastic must include international dimensions as it “does not respect borders.” It recommends continued engagement with international plastic pollution reduction efforts. 

The academy adds that “industry and manufacturing can play a role in designing out plastic waste and upholding their responsibilities through extended producer responsibility schemes.”

“Australia needs a virgin material tax to dissuade packaging companies from using virgin material all the time. The companies need to be held responsible for the plastic they provide with their goods,” adds Headifen. 

“The governments did almost nothing about it in the last 15 years or more in spite of Federal Senate reports saying we had a dire problem.”

Chemistry to build solutions
The academy highlights the properties of plastics vary – some break down more easily than others, and some continue to break down into microplastics. In contrast, others degrade into components “of less concern for health and the environment.”

It recommends addressing plastic waste with a sustained multidisciplinary research agenda incorporating the breakdown distinction to counteract the pollution productively.

Chemists with expertise in plastic degradation can identify which plastics will likely be a long-term problem and which will break down into non-harmful molecular components. The scientists  can also inform the progress of the breakdown of plastics under different conditions, determining which are more harmful to a particular environment.

The academy also recommends multidisciplinary research on the grounds of it helping design novel materials to replace cost-effective and less environmentally problematic plastics.

However, even through implementing chemists to find solutions to Australias plastic problems, Headifen believes that “ultimately it has to come down to reduce, reduce, reduce.”

By Sabine Waldeck