Media release – Team Clean, 22 February 2025
Volunteers clean up 50,838 items of rubbish from World Heritage beaches
A volunteer team of 14 beach cleaners are steaming into Southport this morning, carrying a massive haul of marine debris.
Team Clean have spent the past seven days removing 50,838 items of rubbish — including 1,790 fishing bait box straps and a large piece of industrial salmon farm pipe — from seven of Tasmania’s remote World Heritage beaches.
“Tassie’s southwest coast is home to some of the most extraordinary beaches on earth. But every day, thousands of pieces of plastic wash up onto the shore, endangering marine life and polluting this globally-recognised ecosystem,” said cleanup coordinator Matt Dell.
“Our hardy volunteer team are taking action on the ground, cleaning up vast quantities of plastic pollution, fishing ropes, bait box straps and industrial salmon farming debris from these beautiful beaches. But we need to see urgent action from government and industry to cut out these dangerous sources of pollution from being dumped in the ocean in the first place.
“We are absolutely committed to protecting our ocean and wild coastlines from plastic pollution. Since 1999, Team Clean have removed 895,684 items of rubbish from the World Heritage Area,” concluded Matt Dell.
Team Clean is an 100% non-profit volunteer expedition that has been dedicated to protecting Tasmania’s World Heritage beaches since 1999.
Images courtesy Ula Majewski.
