Andrew the green sea turtle hatchling was travelling from Queensland on his first journey south when he
ate a piece of litter!
Andrew washed up on a Central Coast beach and was found stranded on his back covered in sand.
Fitting easily into the palm of a hand, he was brought to
Taronga Zoo’s Wildlife Hospital
and treated for his injuries.
Andrew spent 16 months in care at the Zoo, eventually growing to over 9 kilos!
When it was time for him to return to the wild, Andrew was fitted with a small satellite tracker.
The tracker allows his carers to follow his journey, and learn more about the mysterious migratory patterns for his species. Andrew's story isn’t a unique one;
sea turtles reach adulthood.
We can give sea turtles like Andrew a fighting chance at survival by making a few simple everyday choices.
The NSW Government is working to reduce litter in NSW through the Don't Be a Tosser Campaign, and every action you take will help too.
We need a sea change,
and that’s where YOU come in!
Use our calculator to measure the amazing impact you can have from making a few small changes.
The majority of litter comes from items designed to be used just once! Fortunately, there are reusable alternatives to almost every disposable product.
Click the item to find out more
Coffee tastes better in a reusable cup.
Disposable cups appear to be made of paper, but the majority have a thin plastic lining making them unrecyclable. Aussies use 1 billion of these disposable cups every year.
If every Australian used a reusable cup, they would save around 1 billion single-use coffee cups from landfill every year!
Bottle it!
Plastic bottles can take 450 years to break up, and while most are recyclable, currently only 1 in every 5 plastic bottles actually makes it into the recycling stream.
If every Australian chose to use a reusable water bottle they could each save around 129 single-use bottles from landfill every year.
Please dispose of plastic bottles properly, and be sure to utilise the NSW Government Return and Earn collection points to get a refund for all these containers.
The last straw.
Australians use 2.7 billion straws a year! Saying no to straws seems like such a simple action, but taking steps like this really do make an enormous difference to our environment.
If every Australian said no to straws or used a stainless steel reusable straw, we would save an average of 2.7 billion single-use plastic straws from landfill every year.
Make your food NUDE!
Take away containers are 24% of litter volume in NSW. Take away containers and other food packaging such as cling wrap or polystyrene often end up in the ocean, eventually breaking up into smaller and smaller pieces. Meals-on-the-go may be convenient for us, but the rubbish can pose serious threats to marine life and our oceans.
There are lots of ways to reduce take away containers and other packaging: