Beautiful Photos of the Worst Offenders Littering Aotearoa's Coast

It’s no secret that our waste isn’t just an issue anymore, it’s a crisis. And if we don’t clean up our act now, it’s expected that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our ocean than fish.

The European Commission is proposing an EU-wide ban on the 10 single-use plastic products that are found most on Europe’s coastline. Along with abandoned fishing gear, they make up 70 percent of all marine litter. The ban will apply to plastic cotton buds, cutlery, plates, straws, drink stirrers and sticks for balloons, all of which have readily available and affordable alternatives.

Greenpeace New Zealand are currently pushing for a plastic pollution strategy that will enforce a ban on plastic bags and move towards eliminating other avoidable single-use plastics.

So what are New Zealand’s guiltiest culprits? VICE asked Sea Cleaners, a non-profit organisation who have removed over 5.1 million litres of rubbish from our coast since 2002.

In no particular order, polystyrene, single use plastic drink bottles, straws, confectionary wrappers, tyres, bottle caps of single use plastic bottles, raw plastic pallets, chip packets, plastic bags, sheet plastic/shrink wrap.

New Zealand photographer Niamh Peren snapped some offenders at the scene.

Co-Founder of Sustainable Coastlines Camden Howitt told VICE NZ more than three quarters of the waste they collect are single use-plastics alone.

New Zealand's marine waste accumulates in gyers in the Eastern South Pacific. Howitt describes them as “giant slow moving world pools” that are at least one million km sq in size and completely devoid of marine life. These gyers hover near remote places like Easter Island and Henderson Island.

“The way that rubbish moves around our oceans really hits home about the message that there is no away. Whether we pollute here, or in Chile, or in Papua New Guinea, we are all connected by our oceans.”

Microplastics are one of the biggest concerns, they are less than 5mm in diameter and sometimes so small small they cannot be seen by the naked eye making them virtually impossible to collect. They can either break off larger pieces of degrading plastic or be manufactured as “microbeads” which are found in cosmetic products like toothpaste or face wash now banned in New Zealand.

Howitt told VICE that Government petitions and bans are effective, but grassroot movements can have just as much impact.

“Our angle is the reverse, it’s a bottom up approach rather than a top down. We look at empowering and enabling individuals to understand the problem, understand the solutions and understand that as an individual they have this huge power to make change. It's not just pointing the finger at the Government.

“We vote with our wallets everyday. As consumers, as voters, as individuals, we can make decisions that have huge impact, we have had some really cool successes recently.”

A group of Sustainable Coastlines interns showed 26 restaurants and bars that sit along Wellington's waterfront the sheer volume of plastic straws they found in the surrounding ocean. They asked if they would consider switching to an alternative and as a result, all 26 have committed to removing straws from their businesses by July 2018.

One of these restaurants was Japanese food chain Wagamama, who have volunteered to cut straws from their 190 restaurants worldwide.

On June 5 this year, World Environment Day, 12 international and several local businesses committed to using 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging in their New Zealand operations by 2025 or earlier.

More about our waste crisis on VICE:
Kiwi Photographer Captures the Sobering Reality of Our Global Waste Crisis Here's Where All Your Plastic Ends Up Garbage Island

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