Wet Tropics Restoration Alliance
Scaling up forest restoration in the Wet Tropics has an impact on waterway health
Healthy waterways underpin our lifestyles and livelihoods. When waterways thrive, so do we.
The Cairns and Douglas regions have joined a national program to reduce the use of single use plastic items by food retailers, and it’s getting results.
The world produces over 400 million tonnes of plastic every year – and about 14 million tonnes of it ends up in waterways. Ocean plastic pollution has ballooned in the past two decades, and without urgent action it’s expected to triple by 2060.
Globally, only nine per cent of plastic waste is recycled. While we need to improve our recycling in Australia, the best solution is still to stop using plastics.
The ‘Plastic Free Places’ program was first piloted in Noosa in 2017. It’s the brainchild of Boomerang Alliance, a national not-for-profit organisation that advocates for a zero-waste society and for legislative change to deal with Australia’s excessive plastic packaging and waste.
Plastic Free Cairns began in February 2020 through funding from the Queensland Department of Environment and Science as part of its Queensland Plastic Pollution Reduction Plan. Douglas Shire came on board in July 2021, funded through the Australian Government’s National Action Plan for Plastics. So far, more than 170 businesses have been part of these initiatives, with over 40 businesses reaching ‘Plastic Free Champion’ status by eliminating single use plastics across six categories. These are straws, coffee cups and lids, takeaway containers and lids, food ware including cutlery, plates and cups, water bottles and bags – all of them items the Queensland Government is seeking to ban as part of its 5-year road map.
Monica Regan, Plastic Free Cairns & Douglas Coordinator, says the program includes coaching for businesses on reuse solutions from changing customers’ coffee cup habits to introducing reuse, borrow and swap systems and building a network of refill stations for water bottles.
“We are here to support any business that is interested in finding, trialling and implementing less waste and new reusable systems that create circular economy outcomes. In addition to our Reusable Café Program, we will soon be introducing Reusable Hotels and Workplace programs as well as an Australian-first pilot of a Reusable Community project in Port Douglas, which aims to bridge the gap between the café, tourism and hotel sectors through three reusable items: the coffee cup, bag and water bottle.”
Since the program began, Cairns and Douglas communities have eliminated almost 2 million single-use plastic items.
To learn more about Plastic Free Places, visit www.plasticfreeplaces.org
Scaling up forest restoration in the Wet Tropics has an impact on waterway health
Farmers are making changes to reduce the runoff of excess nitrogen fertilisers
Lessons learnt from the floods after the Cyclone Jasper that smashed records
Martine joined the Wet Tropics Waterways team as a Science Technical Officer in early 2024 and is keen to apply her experience in statistical programming and database development for the Report Card.
She is an environmental scientist and ecologist and has worked on water quality and aquatic ecology projects as a consultant and in private industry for over 20 years.
Martine has many hobbies and is currently dabbling in horticulture.
With a degree in marine biology and zoology from JCU, Phil has had a diverse career covering research in fisheries biology, 15 years in reef tourism and 13 years with GBRMPA delivering engagement and partnerships programs. Since 2019 he has been self-employed and operates as a consultant to a range of stakeholders on waterway related programs.
He is a keen fisherman.
James joined Wet Tropics Waterways as Executive Officer in 2021 and is passionate about working with stakeholders to communicate the value of our unique waterways. His role involves facilitating and coordinating our partnership program, growing our network and investment into the report card program, and science communication. James oversaw the 2022 Innovations in Waterway Health Forum, and hosted season four of the Reef and Rivers podcast.
James is an ecologist and has previously worked on wetland management in the Murray Darling basin, fish passage in Mackay, and aquatic research in the Wet Tropics.
Outside of work you’ll find him in a local waterway with a mask and snorkel, or hiking or biking around our beautiful region.
Richard has been the Science Technical Officer for Wet Tropics Waterways since 2016. His role involves producing the annual results for the waterway health assessment of the wet tropics region using data from a wide range of sources, to present as scores and grades, as well as developing new indicators to address knowledge and monitoring gaps. He works in collaboration with technical staff at other regional report cards.
Richard has a background in freshwater ecology research projects and environmental assessments with CSIRO, University of Queensland, Queensland Government and as a consultant. For a long time he’s been interested in freshwater aquaculture and continues this interest through farming freshwater crayfish, alongside other farming activities.