Australia’s trash tide: what researchers found as they studied 20m pieces of beach rubbish

An analysis of coastal rubbish collected over a decade reveals almost half of it is local litter, but in some areas plastic is washing up from overseas

Plastic makes up 84% of the rubbish found on Australian beaches, according to analysis of a decade of clean-up efforts by more than 150,000 citizen scientists.

Since 2004, the Australian Marine Debris Initiative - launched by the non-profit Tangaroa Blue Foundation - has documented more than 20m items of rubbish collected from beach clean-ups around the country.