Our lives are wrapped in plastic. It’s in the food we eat, what we drink and the clothes we wear. At the same time, our choices and power are being taken away from us, with big business making plastic impossible to avoid. Fishing gear lost at sea, known as ghost gear, is drowning turtles and other marine wildlife.
An estimated 11 million tonnes of plastic waste enters our oceans every year, and that figure is expected to triple by 2040. This endless tide of plastic products is producing a wave of pollution, entangling and suffocating our turtles, whales and seabirds. Over 100,000 marine animals and a million seabirds die from plastic interactions each year.
Plastic pollution also impacts First Nations peoples’ lands and waters, threatening cultural practices, livelihoods and health. Stories of the rising tide of abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear on Sea Country paints a confronting picture of why we must stop plastics at the source.
We know we can’t recycle our way out of this mess. Governments must commit to plastic reduction targets and hold corporations to account if we are to slash our use of needless plastic and take action to stop plastic at the source.
In partnership with other eNGOs, AMCS independently audits the major supermarkets, to hold them accountable for their plastic usage. We are driving government ambition for Australia’s first mandatory packaging regulations to eliminate unrecyclable plastics from our shelves. We are also pushing hard for national and global action to secure a legally binding global treaty on plastic pollution.
Help us stop needless plastic at the source.
Explore how you can help enable this important work below.
All donations over $2 are 100% tax-deductible. The projects featured in the Funding Prospectus are priority campaign activities and needs for which we are urgently seeking funds – current at the time of posting or going to press. As time progresses, there may be some cases in which the project you have selected may already be fully funded. In that instance, we would be delighted to discuss where the need is greatest at the given time. All of our campaigns work in symbiotic support of our mission to protect our oceans. Please be assured your gift will go to work to be the voice for Australia’s oceans, working on the big issues that risk our ocean wildlife.
