The waters around Australia are riddled with more than 4,000 tiny pieces of plastic per square kilometer, posing a threat to marine life and humans, new research has found.

 

The study, conducted by the University of Western Australia and CSIRO, found the vast majority of plastic particles were polyethylene and polypropylene, used to create disposable packaging, such as water bottles, and fishing equipment.

 

Researchers took seven voyages along Australia’s coastline, finding plastic concentrations were heaviest near Sydney and Brisbane, although the remote region of south-west Tasmania was also inundated with plastic, potentially swept in by the Antarctic current.

 

Overall, Australia is judged to have a plastic contamination level similar to the Caribbean Sea, but lower than the Mediterranean Sea. Australia, the research notes, uses nearly 1.5m tonnes of plastic a year, with only 20% of it recycled.

 

The study warns that plastics, if ingested by fish, “can affect the health of food webs, which include humans as an apex predator”.

 

The issue of rubbish being dumped into the ocean was highlighted in October by an Australian sailor, who described parts of the Pacific Ocean as “dead” as he dodged debris for thousands of kilometers on a journey to Japan.