Help wage the war on single-use plastics this summer

Interested in helping our wildlife, beaches and bushland by giving one of our local community groups a helping hand over summer?

Check out these friendly community groups that are waging the war on single-use plastics across the Beaches.

If you enjoy snorkelling? Why not join ‘Operation Straw’ at Manly Cove on a Saturday morning and snorkel for plastic straws.

If walking is more your style, then check out the ‘Northern Beaches Clean Up Crew’ on the last Sunday of every month to clean up a local beach or lagoon.

For those who would rather be indoors, try your hand with ‘Boomerang Bags’ and make reusable bags out of used materials to help avoid single-use plastic bags.

If you like to have change-making conversations about these issues, then ‘Our Blue Dot’ or ‘Plastic Free Manly’ would love to hear from you.

Combating single-use plastic is vital because plastics never break down chemically. They just break into smaller and smaller pieces until they become microplastics, which pollute our oceans and are even being found in our food chain and the air we breathe.

Other items causing major impacts on our environment include coffee cups (not recyclable except the lids), cigarette butts and disposable wipes (please don’t flush down the toilet). These all have hidden plastics and are also contributing to the microplastics in our oceans. In fact the National Litter Index shows cigarette butts are the most littered item in NSW.

For more ideas on how you too can reduce your use of single-use plastics.