Rising rivers of plastic polluting Port Phillip Bay – Australia

Rising rivers of plastic polluting Port Phillip Bay – Australia

Posted on March 14, 2021 by DrRossH in Plastic Waste News

Source: Rising rivers of plastic polluting Port Phillip Bay

What's polluting the Yarra River?

Port Phillip EcoCentre has conducted 113 litter trawls over a five-year period to estimate the total amount of rubbish on the surface of each river.

Staff and volunteers at the centre cleaned, counted and measured the litter before it was sent to a laboratory at RMIT for chemical analysis. RMIT also oversaw statistics gathered for the study.

The university has processed at least 53,600 samples gathered by the group.

The study revealed that the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers were carrying an estimated combined total of 2.5 billion pieces of rubbish, including plastics, polystyrene fragments and cigarette butts in the year to February 2020.