00:00Off the Arnhem Land coast, the beaches of Elko Island are littered with plastic waste.
00:07The clean-up for this indigenous ranger group is a depressing task. They're worried about
00:12animals and microplastics filling the fish we eat.
00:16The turtle sees the plastic and they think it's a giant jellyfish or something and they
00:21go for it.
00:22The rangers have welcomed the help of environment group volunteers who've come from across the
00:27country as part of their annual northern coastline clean-up program. In just one week, they've
00:33removed seven tonnes.
00:36Big thanks to the Sea Shepherd crew who came along and helping us doing beach clean-up
00:43because like I said, it is a big job.
00:48Much of the plastic has drifted south from Asia.
00:51But those countries have our rubbish going to them. So it's a global problem. It's not
00:57an Indonesian problem. It's made by Western companies.
01:01The United Nations estimates that 11 million tonnes of plastic goes into the sea each year.
01:07That's 220 billion of these water bottles.
01:11So environment groups are arguing that Australia should start taxing the production of any
01:16plastic that doesn't include recycled material in line with Spain, Italy and the UK.
01:24If we were recycling them and then making recycled plastics cheaper than virgin plastics,
01:28I think we'd see the plastic producers globally look at making reusable and other options.
01:34The federal environment minister says she's working with state governments on new rules
01:39to ensure all packaging in Australia is designed to be reused or recycled. And there will be
01:46mandatory targets for recycled content.
01:50But until those come in, this clean-up provides just a temporary reprieve.
01:55The sad thing about it is that it's going to keep coming.
01:58The partners hope their efforts will inspire others to care.
02:02And it starts with you, a single person.
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