Local recycling initiative teaches old lids new tricks

A LOCAL environmental innovator and conservation crusader is fearful there will be more plastics in the oceans than fish by 2050.

That is why James “Murph” Murphy is so passionate about a community initiative he started in the hopes of remedying this issue, particularly on his own coastline around the Bellarine.

Mr Murphy, the founder of the Southern Ocean Environmental Link and director of local tourism company Sea All Dolphins Swims in Queenscliff, is encouraging people all over the region to help find other uses for unwanted plastics by participating in his monthly workshops.

On the last Saturday of each month, Mr Murphy conducts plastic recycling workshops held at Queenscliff Harbour outside Sea All Dolphin Swims Shop.

There, school groups and members of the community are educated on the short- and long-term impacts of plastic pollution while sorting, cleaning and repurposing collected plastics into useful items.

“We started this not-for-profit [SOEL] in 2015 and the whole purpose of the venture was to try and create something that helps support marine conservation,” Mr Murphy said.

“We wanted to do our part to help protect the environment and this initiative of plastic recycling helped to encompass supporting research and promoting activism amongst the community.”

SOEL’s workshops, usually done with student cohorts, involves taking the young people down to the local beach to collect plastics or getting each student to gather their own lid collection prior to the workshops.

From there, the plastics are then sorted and cleaned before being put into a machine called a granulator that turns the lids into a shredded plastic form.

Once the plastic is shredded, it is then heated in a separate machine to a melting point and then pressed into a mould of SOEL’s choosing to repurpose it into something else.

“Our previous education angle has been primarily about ‘activation’, but now from more of a community standpoint, which is where we are headed with this initiative, it’s more about creating things that will be useful to someone else,” Mr Murphy said.

At the most recent community workshop held last Saturday, Murph and his team added a little Christmas twist to the program.

Toy moulds that were created from the Christmas workshop will be donated to SOEL’s partnered children’s charity – Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Association (VACCA).

VACCA is Victoria’s leading Aboriginal child and family organisation, offering assistance to thousands of individuals statewide.

Products created from the moulds after Christmas will be donated to local children’s organisations and education groups.

Murph urged anyone with questions about the workshop to contact SOEL on 03 5258 3889 or email [email protected].