An estimated 87.5 kg of marine debris was intercepted from the coastline of “The Beach Planespotting”, Sydney’s notorious hotspot for litter, with most of it destined for recycled products thanks to the efforts of athletes from the Australia SailGP Team, digital lender WLTH and Parley for the Oceans.
Ahead of the upcoming KPMG Australian Sail Grand Prix | Sydney on February 18 – 19, this unique collaboration drives a unified commitment to take real action on environmental preservation as part of WLTH and Parley’s ongoing partnership with the Australia SailGP Team.
Over the lifetime of the partnership, the companies have committed to cleaning 27,800m² of beach and coastline so far as a result of the Australia SailGP Team’s previous race results in the impact league.
Over 35 volunteers from organisations including WLTH, Parley for the Oceans, Sail Racing, Australia Sail GP, Switzerland Sail GP, Denmark Sail GP, and United States Sail GP teams were in attendance. The team cleared rubbish made up of syringes, medical, gas, cannisters, broken glass and more, which posed huge risks to both human and marine life, amounting to approximately 500m² of beach and coastline cleaned.
This marks the third beach clean-up by WLTH and Parley for the Oceans. The collaboration aims to minimise the amount of plastic ending up in the world’s oceans, with over 116 million tonnes of plastic currently making up around 80 percent of marine debris. On average, each Australian uses 130kg of plastic annually, with less than 12 percent of this plastic ending up recycled, according to WWF Australia.
“Action and transparency in our efforts are a crucial step in the right direction in the fight to save our oceans and protect the environment”, said Brodie Haupt, CEO and co-founder of WLTH.
“We want to empower peers and business leaders to make a positive impact through efforts that can truly make a lasting impact on the health of our oceans and planet, ” he added.
Drew Haupt, co-founder of WLTH said: “The current state of the oceans should serve as a reminder to all of us, and to challenge our over-reliant relationship with plastic. We are committed to creating a cleaner, and more sustainable environment for the planet, and marine life.”
“The ocean is facing an urgent plastic crisis and it’s up to all of us to protect it. We are grateful for the support of Parley for the Oceans and SailGP in this effort, and we hope this event will inspire more people to take action and make a difference,” he added.
Tom Slingsby, Australia SailGP Team Driver & CEO said: “We know our oceans play a fundamental role in mitigating climate change and it’s great to have partners in WLTH and Parley For The Oceans who share in our vision that we need to take action by cleaning up our oceans, and educating the public on why the ocean is our greatest asset. Our team is extremely proud that we were able to take part in today’s beach clean up, removing harmful plastics from ending up in our beautiful ocean.”
“As important as these cleanups are, we have to put a really strong focus on creating materials that are non toxic to the environment and wildlife around us, so we will never have to come together to clean up our water way,” said Christian Miller, Director of Parley Australia.
Full Article: SailWorld
