Tangaroa Blue Foundation

How Port Douglas is Tackling Cigarette Waste through Ditch the Flick®

Port Douglas is Tackling Cigarette Waste through Ditch the Flick® The Ditch the Flick campaign, led by the combined efforts of Tangaroa Blue’s ReefClean program and local partners, has been implemented in several locations, as well as in the heart of Port Douglas, where remarkable progress has been made over recent months to reduce cigarette butt litter in the community. Why should you Ditch the Flick? The Australian Marine Debris Initiative Database shows cigarettes to be one of the most

23 December 2025

A Year in Review: The Esky Library Initiative

Indian Ocean Territory Esky Library Initiative’s Success Continues 2025 marked the beginning of something truly special for waste reduction on Christmas Island. After months of research and careful planning, the Esky Library Initiative was launched in February 2025 with a highly successful trial that ran through to May. What began as a small pilot quickly demonstrated the power of community-led solutions to tackle complex environmental challenges. What is the Esky Library Initiative? Expanded polystyrene is a major contributor to marine

16 December 2025

Cleaning-up Marine Debris on Country with the Lama Lama Rangers

Cleaning-up on Country with the Lama Lama Rangers Last month, Tangaroa Blue Coordinators Georgia and AJ headed up to Port Stewart in Princess Charlotte Bay to work alongside the Lama Lama Rangers on their 2025 Great Barrier Reef Clean-up event.The team worked with the Senior and Junior Rangers from Port Stewart, Silver Plains, and Running Creek bases, along with DAFF and Mangrove Watch, heading out to the Running Creek Beach to clean-up marine debris.Together, they removed 102kg of debris in

18 November 2025

Chasing Down Ghost Gear Before it Hits the Reef

Chasing Down Ghost Gear Before it Hits the Reef Pictured above: A huge ghost net recovered through Project ReCon, which reuses lost GPS buoys to track ghost gear. Tangaroa Blue Foundation and the Pacific Community (SPC) have entered into a new collaboration through a pilot project to recover dFADs that have been lost from the international purse seine fishing grounds and drifted into the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). SPC, in collaboration with Satlink and partner fishing companies (the American

30 October 2025

The Thinker’s Burden: Reflections from Geneva’s (Failed?) Treaty Talks

Tangaroa Blue’s Global Plastics Treaty Ambassador Dr Randika Jayasinghe It’s been five days since I returned from Geneva, and only now can I find the words. Every morning, my walk to the UN Palais in Geneva took me past Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong’s sculpture “The Thinker’s Burden”. A reimagining of Rodin’s classic, but this thinker cradled a child while seated on Mother Earth, wrapped in DNA strands. Each day, I watched as more plastic waste was piled around it,

21 August 2025

We’re Hiring – Project Coordinator on Christmas Island

We’re hiring a part-time or casual Project Coordinator on Christmas Island Are you passionate about protecting our oceans and want to make a real impact? Tangaroa Blue Foundation is looking for a dedicated Project Officer on Christmas Island to help drive community engagement and science-based solutions to tackle marine debris. As our major Indian Ocean Territories grant-funded project wraps up, we’re looking for a project coordinator who can help Tangaroa Blue continue to deliver some of the key elements of

3 July 2025

Rig Recycle Youth Ambassador Guy Lambert gets stuck in at the Boyne Tannum Hook Up

Representing Rig Recycle at Australia’s Biggest Fishing Comp Rig Recycle Youth Ambassador GUY LAMBERT Last weekend, Dad and I travelled to the Gladstone area to represent Rig Recycle in the biggest fishing competition in Australia, the Boyne Tannum Hook Up. It was great catching up with and working with Tangaroa Blue Coordinator Ian Anderson, who kindly accommodated us for the weekend. With approximately 30,000 people attending the Hook Up, it was a great chance to meet and connect with the

7 May 2025

The Esky Library Trial: A Community-Led Source Reduction Success!

The Esky Library Trial: A Community-Led Source Reduction Success! Between February and April 2025, 23 households on Christmas Island came together to rethink how fresh food air freight is delivered, attempting to tackle the #1 item found in local beach clean-ups: polystyrene waste. Impacts of our circular solution: 35 reusable eskies circulated 6,187L of polystyrene waste (269 foam boxes) diverted from landfill 100% of participants want to keep using the service 50+ more Indian Ocean Territory households and three businesses are ready to

5 May 2025

2024 ReefClean® Report Out Now: Communities Uniting for the Reef

Reef Catchment Communities Unite to Remove 11 Tonnes of Marine Debris The 2024 ReefClean® Report is here, and it shines a spotlight on the incredible work of our ReefClean community, partners, and team over the past year. Together, we ran 222 clean-up events — including marine debris monitoring and disaster response activities — alongside 11 educational workshops and 11 new source reduction initiatives. Pictured: Volunteers sorting debris at a remote clean-up at Chilli Beach. Diving into the Data This year’s

17 April 2025

Clorox ordered to pay $8.25m in penalties for misleading ‘ocean plastic’ claims after Tangaroa Blue Complaint

Tangaroa Blue Foundation and the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) are celebrating a major campaign win against greenwashing. Following their complaint, the ACCC has successfully taken action against Clorox, the parent company of GLAD, for making false and misleading claims about “ocean plastic” in their products. Clorox has now been ordered to pay $8.25 million in penalties for marketing GLAD kitchen and garbage bags as being made from recycled “ocean plastic” – a claim that simply isn’t possible. Plastics collected from the marine environment are

14 April 2025