Calls to ban 'ineffective monsters' used to clean iconic Aussie beaches

Environmental activist Josie Jones says the technique currently used to clean beaches is causing more harm than good.

Environmental campaigner Josie Jones (left) and plastic waste (right).
Campaigner Josie Jones successfully lobbied her council to stop mechanical raking local beaches and she's not stopping here. Source: Supplied

Environmentalists are calling for a ban on mechanical raking at world-famous Sydney beaches, following one council’s bold decision to stop using the "monster" machines after relentless lobbying from an Aussie campaigner who found they were “ineffective”. Josie Jones said she discovered through her own research that the machines were breaking waste up into microplastics, which can be fatal for wildlife.

Jones OAM, a photographer and former Australian of the Year, persuaded Victoria's Morning Peninsula Shire council to trial litter pick-ups by hand for 12 months after an investigation found it cleared just 22.2 per cent off rubbish from the beaches. She now hopes others will soon follow suit.

Jones found the heavy-duty machines were cutting up plastics — such as abandoned children’s toys, cutlery, straws, bottles, caps and even syringes — into smaller pieces known as macro and microplastics, and burying them in the sand.

Microplastics are often mistaken for food by birds, fish, turtles and other marine life with devastating and deadly consequences.

“These plastics we were finding on the beach were coming from the mechanical beach raking process,” Jones told Yahoo News Australia. “The mechanical raker picked up 84 tonnes of rubbish but 71.4 tonnes of that was seaweed.”

Penguin caught in a balloon (left) and Josie Jones with a camera (right).
Discarded plastic left on our beaches can have deadly consequences, says Jones, as shown here where a penguin has been caught up in a balloon. Source: Supplied

She said seaweed and other marine vegetation may look unsightly, but were an important food source for birds and should be left on the beach, rather than being removed and dumped at a cost of $1,994 per tonne.

A council report noted a “sudden spike in litter post-mechanical raking”, with the amount of rubbish the activist had hand collected off the beach being “much higher” than it had been earlier.

Furthermore, it added there was also evidence to suggest mechanical raking caused sand erosion by blowing away the top layer, creating further environmental damage.

While still celebrating her recent success, Jones is not stopping there. Now she's calling for other councils to ban raking, especially in Sydney — home to some of the country's most popular stretches of sand including Bondi Beach, Manly and Balmoral — where she has also undertaken research and litter pick-ups.

Jones' mission to rid the nation of mechanical rakers is backed by fellow activist Suzanne Casement, who has been voluntarily hand collecting rubbish from local beaches for eight years.

“We want to carry on what she is teaching her council,” Casement, who once found 1,700 straws on one beach in one clean up, told Yahoo News. “Mechanical rakes are used at Coogee, Malabar, La Perouse and many others.”

Susanne Casement and her daughter-in-law Chrissy (left) and the rubbish they found (right).
Suzanne Casement and her daughter-in-law Chrissy found a handful of rubbish shortly after the 'monster' mechanical raker had come through. Source: Supplied

On one occasion after the "monster" machines had come through, the Sydney grandmother and her daughter-in-law Chrissy collected 10 bags of rubbish in less than a square metre. “We're picking up more stuff than they are,” Casement added.

"It's depressing. You feel like: 'OMG. I was just here yesterday and look how much rubbish there is here'.

“We don't need a beach with pretty lines [left by the rakers] and no seaweed,” Casement told Yahoo. “We need a safe clean environment for us and the waters inhabitants and beach raking isn't the best answer."

A spokesperson for Randwick Council, which sees more than 5 million visits to its beaches each year, said it “shares the community’s concern about plastic pollution, including the presence of microplastics in oceans and on beaches around Sydney".

“In 2019 we launched the award-winning End Beach Pollution campaign, to educate people about beach pollution and ways to make a difference," the spokesperson told Yahoo.

Suzanne Casement (left) and a sea creature caught up in a face mask (right).
Casement, pictured at 'The Beach' at Mascot, has been collecting rubbish off local beaches for eight years and is shocked at what she constantly finds. Source: Supplied

“Council has installed 36 pollutant traps at stormwater outlets along the Randwick City coastline, which prevented 453 tonnes of pollutants — including plastics — entering the ocean in the 2023-2024 financial year alone. More than 80 per cent of this waste is recycled.

“We currently use both manual cleaning and mechanical rakes to clean over 150,000sqm of sand every day, removing over 200 tonnes of material from our beaches every year."

The Randwick Council spokesperson said: “While we have investigated ways to filter microplastics out of the water, the available technology is not currently suited to ocean beaches, as it needs to be connected to a wharf or jetty and is not designed to handle breaking waves and variable swell."

They said the best way to combat plastic pollution was to reduce the amount of plastic packaging produced to begin with, and ensuring that existing plastic waste was disposed of appropriately.

Plastic straws and syringes found on Sydney beaches (left) and plastic drink bottle lids (right).
Plastic pollution is at crisis levels with Australians being the second largest consumer per person of single-use plastic. Source: Supplied

A spokesperson for Mosman Council told Yahoo News: “Hand pick-ups are conducted at Chinamans Beach, due to the dune system there and the lower visitation rates compared with other Mosman beaches.

“Mechanical raking is used at Sirius Cove, Clifton Gardens and Balmoral as these locations experience higher usage and, facing the harbour, are prone to having a lot more debris on the beach,” the spokesperson told Yahoo News.

They added Mosman had a dedicated volunteer program, Harbour Care, where volunteers are supported to remove litter from beaches and foreshore areas.

Northern Beaches and Waverley councils did not get back to Yahoo in time for publication.

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