In Term 3 of 2023, I joined a group of students to establish the Plastic Oceans Project with the aim to reduce the amount of single-use-plastic waste in our Adolescent Program and share the importance of protecting our oceans from plastic pollution. I was co-leader of the group along with two other senior peers.

Since the project began, we completed two waste audits to gather data, and attained feedback from Waste Sort who helped us better understand our waste issue. We were visited by Wayne Walters who gave us insight into careers and organisations that are pushing for change, Rhiannon Anderson who gave us an overview of Plastic Oceans Australasia, and engaged in insightful discussions during the sessions about single-use plastics and policies.

Throughout Term 4 we worked towards a beach clean-up and kickstarted our awareness and action campaign. One of our students created a video about our group efforts that was entered into the Oceans in Motion film competition, and our school was awarded first place.

Myself and co-hosts are out at TAFE or apprenticeships in 2024, so unfortunately, we are unable to attend Plastic Oceans sessions anymore however the group still existed for a little while after.