Tackling plastic pollution in Sydney Harbour
Published Thu 05 Jun 2025
This year’s World Environment Day calls for collective action to tackle plastic pollution to create a healthier future for all.
In Sydney North Region, a special 12-month Earth Tribe Project Patrol has already turned their attention to the problem of pollution, including plastic pollution, in Sydney Harbour. As part of the global Scouts for SDGs initiative, Cammeray Scout Group has brought together enthusiastic Cub Scouts, Scouts and Venturer Scouts to put their mind to solving the problem.
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What is Earth Tribe? Earth Tribe is one of four initiatives from the World Organization of the Scout Movement and has a focus on environmental challenges for Scouts with an interest in climate change but no idea where to start. One aspect is the Plastic Tide Turners Challenge – where Scouts learn about the impacts of plastic and how to help turn the tide on this issue in their communities. Completing the challenge will see Scouts earn their Plastic Tide Turners Challenge Badge. |
Scout Trainee Leader Oliver Roths, who is a robotics engineer and self-proclaimed robot nerd, is supporting the Patrol to design, build, and operate a remote-controlled (RC) harbour foreshore cleaning robot to remove floating waste from Sydney Harbour. The key focus areas are Lavender Bay, Milsons Point, Kirribilli Point and Neutral Bay.
As part of the research phase of the project, the Patrol visited Reshaping Waste’s Ecohub in McMahons Point in May, with 14 Scouts and two Cub Scouts among the 26 participants attending.
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“In addition to Scouts from 2nd St Ives, 1st Hornsby Heights, 1st Balgowlah, 1st Sailors Bay, Cammeray and 1st North Sydney Scout Groups, we also had students from North Sydney Boys High School joining us to understand the plastics problem which is at the centre of the Earth Tribe Project Patrol – plastic rubbish in the ocean!” Oliver said.
“We have recruited some fantastic Patrol members with outstanding prospects in diverse fields. We have already identified youth engineers, coders, robot builders, marketeers and expert navigators who will be piloting our robot around the harbour in due course.
“Our visit to Reshaping Waste was all about learning how certain plastics are being treated during the recycling process. We each got to sort, analyse and shred plastics and we got to make new products from recycled plastic, which we all took home.
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“Reshaping Waste is a wonderful business that provides environmental education for youth in the northern Sydney area.”
