There is always a hell of a lot of rubbish on Northern Beaches.  As well as those mentioned in the article, there are usually lots of plastic Knives and Forks, [as from take-away meals,] fresh Vegetables, [mostly Potatoes, Onions, and Pumpkin.]  Fruit,[ mostly Oranges, Apples, Bananas, and Pineapples.], different types of Alcohol [occasionally], plus Alcohol Bottles, [especially Japanese Whisky Bottles.] Car tyres, Milk Crates, Dug-out Canoes, Dingys, Furniture and even Combs, Toothbrushes, Toothpaste, and Shampoo/Conditioner.  That's just in the Temple Bay area on Cape York.

And yes, even then, there were lots of Turtle deaths due to swallowing Plastic Bags.

And my memory is from about 30 years ago.  Can't believe it's been that long.  It's probably a lot worse now.

Cheers,

Sheba.

 

-- Edited by Sheba on Thursday 2nd of October 2014 06:14:18 PM

GaryKelly wrote:

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For the life of me I can't fathom the mentality of people who discard their rubbish with no thought for the environment.

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 They are just Scum Bags mate.

I always though the rate payers paid the Councils  to keep the Shires clean,   a very excited Billeeeeeee

 

The Gulf of Carpentaria seems to act as a sort of sump for rubbish. As the article indicates, the bulk of that at Old Mappoon was of foreign origin.
When we went up the Cape, we were horrified by how much of this type of rubbish there was. Just about every bush behind one beach was wrapped up in fishing nettting - blown onshore after being lost or discarded from trawlers in the Gulf. There were a lot of the big lights trawlers use too.
It seemed to us - strangely - that the vast majority of washed up thongs we saw were left footed ones!
However, not all rubbish was washed in. We were disgusted at Vrilya Beach and a couple of other places by huge piles of used disposable nappies discarded. Also food tins and the like. Vrilya was a camp place for locals as well as travellers.