Colleen Hughson
Beach Patrol
Warrnambool native and eco-activist, Colleen Hughson, first began her beach clean-up initiative after spending time walking along the Shelly Beach, a remote, rugged stretch of coastline near her hometown. During an illness she would frequent the beach taking time to unwind and relax but couldn’t help but noticing that day in, day out, the beach was dotted with white, plastic sticks.
After some research and investigation, to her surprise Hughson established that the sticks she kept seeing were in fact cotton bud sticks. This was the beginning of her eco-warrior odyssey, initiated by the creation of an awareness group on Facebook which implored the town to continuously monitor the beaches that surround them.
Nurdle Hunter
The same year, Hughson stumbled across a different form of plastic pollution on her local beaches and another CSI style investigation began. Tiny plastic balls littered the shoreline which she later worked out were ‘nurdles’, the raw material in the manufacture of plastic products. Nurdles are particularly dangerous because marine animals often mistake them for eggs and, when ingested, they block the animal’s digestive system.
It was established that the source of the nurdles was a nearby sewage treatment facility. Hughson promptly organised a community beach cleanup, which turned into an ongoing effort to document the extent of the spill and use data to influence tighter monitoring of the local treatment plant.
Better Buds
After her initial plastic discovery, she’s since found more and more different plastics that are being funnelled into the ocean and washing up on the beach. Still collecting plastic waste on the beach almost everyday, Colleen says, “ If everyone does their own bit, I think we can make a change...it’s about commitment and it’s really important to get data at the start so you can see how you’ve made an impact over time.”
Being a video producer herself, she uses her digital and media skills to create awareness and promote behaviour change in the community regarding single use plastics, and particularly to phase out the use of plastic stemmed cotton buds in Australia entirely. She recently launched her ‘Better Buds’ campaign to help phase out the use of the traditional plastic buds in Australia through education, encouraging retailers to stock biodegradable alternatives and pushing for a complete ban of this style as has already been done in the UK and New Zealand.
