Local action on plastic pollution with Dr Kathy Willis

Dr Kathy Willis is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington and CSIRO Scientific Researcher on a mission to combat plastic pollution and reframe plastic as a valuable commodity rather than a throwaway item. In Kathy's second appearance on the pod, we discuss the recent good news about plastic pollution on Australian beaches, spatial and temporal trends in plastic washing up on beaches along the US Pacific Northwest, citizen science, 'biofoul' on marine debris, and community-led informal waste management programs.

Useful links:

1. Kathy on LinkedIn (here)
2. Ocean Protect Podcast, Season 2, Episode 10 (May 2020) "CSIRO's Kathy Willis on preventing litter entering our oceans" (here)
3. The Conversation article Local efforts have cut plastic waste on Australia’s beaches by almost 30% in 6 years (here)
4. One Earth Journal Paper Local waste management successfully reduces coastal plastic pollution (here)  
5. The Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST) https://coasst.org/
6. Clear Seas https://clearseas.org/en/
7. ABC News article Volunteers hope efforts to remove invasive northern Pacific seastar will make a difference (here)

Note: During the chat, Dr Kathy mentions that 'Saahas' was the name for a waste management program in India, but meant to say 'Swachcoop'.

For further information about Ocean Protect, check us out at www.oceanprotect.com.au

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