Action and Systems Approach Needed
Last week, OceanEarth Foundation’s Jessica Leck, joined leaders from marine conservation, food systems and retail to help launch the new white paper, Microplastics: Preparing for Australia’s Next Regulatory Shift, at the University of Technology Sydney Business School.
Jessica joined Cip Hamilton from the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Gary Kennedy from Correct Food Systems and Elaine Clayton from BIG W for a wide-ranging panel discussion.
Authored by Professor Martina Linnenluecke and Professor Ross Gordon, the white paper paints a confronting picture. Microplastics are now found across air, water and soil, as well as in food and human tissue. Their full health impacts are still emerging, while regulation, testing standards and routine industry monitoring remain fragmented. Yet its findings also point to a major opportunity: secondary microplastics, created when larger plastic items break down, account for an estimated 69 to 81 per cent of microplastics in the ocean.
As Jessica highlighted during the panel, this means much of the problem can be addressed before fragmentation occurs.
End-of-life fishing nets are a powerful example. Australia currently lacks adequate pathways to collect and recycle this material. Many landfills will not accept it, onshore processing capacity is limited and export is often unviable. Yet nets are commonly made from valuable, highly recyclable materials such as HDPE and nylon, and demand for recycled marine-debris plastics is strong.
Captured early, these nets are relatively clean and useful. Left in the environment, they shed microplastics, accumulate biofouling and contamination, and become progressively harder to recycle. Creating viable recovery and recycling systems would prevent pollution while reducing demand for virgin plastic and its embedded financial and carbon costs.
The panel also explored what meaningful action looks like across industry. Large corporations may have the resources to move ahead of regulation, but many Australian industries are built on small businesses and sole traders operating on razor-thin margins. Well-designed, harmonised regulation can create a level playing field, allowing whole sectors to transition together. Decision-makers can also accelerate change through grants, incentives, permit exemptions and support for local recycling innovation.
While more research is needed, particularly on food safety and human health, uncertainty should not become an excuse for delay. The precautionary principle tells us to reduce likely harm now, while research continues.
Consumer choices matter, but convenience, cost and the ubiquity of plastic make individual action alone inadequate. People can have greater impact by using their voices, engaging with their MPs and making their priorities clear.
Perhaps the strongest message from the discussion was to look beyond microplastics as a standalone threat. They are a symptom of a wider system. When we connect symptoms to their common causes, we create much stronger levers for transformational change.
Read the white-paper here.