Aussie woman's 'awful' find inside shrunken Tooheys Extra Dry wrapper
A Canberra dog walker's morning was ruined after she picked up a piece of littered plastic from a lake.
The worst thing you might expect from polishing off a six-pack of beer is a thumping headache the next morning, but one drinker’s selfish antics have sparked a far more damaging outcome.
It’s likely the person who chucked their Tooheys Extra Dry wrapper did so because it was easier than finding a bin. They probably didn’t consider their laziness would devastate a creature minding its own business in a nearby lake and ruin a dog walker’s morning.
Canberra woman Emily Jansch was exercising her Great Dane x Bull Arab named Luna at Stromlo Forest water catchment when she spotted the shiny green plastic floating on the water on Monday morning. “I originally just thought it was just a wrapper which unfortunately isn’t uncommon, but then I saw the shape of a turtle beneath it,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
Because the turtle appeared to be swimming, Emily waded forward to try and free it. “The turtle was moving… and it let me touch it, and I was beginning to peel the plastic away when I realised the turtle had passed and it was moving with the current of the water,” she said.
Emily did her best to remove the plastic, but it had shrunk and hardened onto its shell in the heat. The Tooheys wrapper had bound the poor animal’s legs, and coated its rear cloaca — a vent that’s essential for breathing underwater.
Environmentalists call on beer brands to rethink plastic packaging
The incident left Emily feeling both “angry and frustrated” at the person who threw the single-use wrapper away, but also at the company who created it.
“It’s a really, really awful way to go. You see turtles there every now and again,” she said. “Individuals have a personal responsibility to try and make a positive impact but change has to happen at a higher level. What we need from manufacturers is more action than words.”
Jeff Angel, the founder of the Total Environment Centre, believes Australian manufacturers need to find “better ways” to package their beer.
“There are easy practical alternatives to plastics,” he said. “I’m dismayed by what happened to the turtle, but this example must trigger the government, the community and the big beverage companies to do better.”
Other sad Australian turtle discoveries
Tooheys plans to reduce plastic use
While it's too late for the turtle, positive change looks to be around the corner at Tooheys. In a statement, its parent company Lion said it is "committed" to reducing the amount of plastic used in its packaging materials.
"We know that plastic persists in the environment for many years, and in the short term our society can’t recycle plastics fast enough to deal with what’s put on the market, so the key to solving this problem is replacing plastics with more sustainable options," it said.
Lion plans to remove plastic shrink wrap from bottles in 2025, a measure it took in 2021 with its cans. Plastic labels are also set to be replaced with biodegradable materials by 2030.
Can soft plastics be recycled?
Like many other Australian brands trying to combat their waste problem, in 2019 Tooheys partnered with the REDcycle scheme — a soft plastic recycling program facilitated by Coles and Woolworths. However this collaboration was short-lived as it emerged in 2022 that tonnes of plastics were being stockpiled rather than recycled. Since REDcycle's collapse that year Australia has lacked a nationwide soft plastics scheme.
Made from fossil fuels, thousands of tonnes of plastic bags, food and drink packaging are currently sent to landfill, although there are some small-scale programs in existence.
Manufacturers currently trialling a plan that would see soft plastics eventually placed in household yellow recycling bins.
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