Turning the tide on plastic waste

“You find yourself, working for country. Makes you feel good, cleaning up your land.”

Meet Gumbaynggirr man Corey Greenup, one of four local Aboriginal rangers based in Bowraville involved in an exciting new project turning disused oyster barrels into plastic pellets to be sold to local industries.

Corey’s talking about why he loves his job.

He and his team of MiiMi Rangers (Vic Buchanan, Rowena Chapman and Zac Stadhams) spend their working day at the Bowraville Recycling Facility collecting, stripping back, cutting down and ultimately chipping up old oyster barrels into plastic pellets.

The plastic pellets are then sold to local manufacturers who use them to make recycled plastic items such as bollards and park benches.

“We get these barrels, so they don’t need to wash up in our mangroves or on our beaches...or go to landfill and just fill our land up,” Corey said.

The barrels are collected from local oyster leases and found washed up in the Nambucca River.

It’s hard work, but it’s work Corey and his team take enormous pride in.

Workmate Zac Stadhams echoes Corey’s sentiments.

The best part for him is knowing that by doing this work, he is caring for what’s most important: Country.

“There is a self-pride about this job. Just being a young Indigenous man giving back to this Country,” Zac said.

“Growing up in the Nambucca Valley seeing a lot of rubbish in the waterways around here, it’s been satisfying to clean the Country back up... I just want to see my Country beautiful again,” he said.

DPI Fisheries Aboriginal Project Officer, Kelly Gittins, has been involved in the MiiMi Rangers recycling program.

“It's definitely a very successful program,” she says.

“I really would like to see more of these [kind of programs] happening across the whole of the NSW marine estate,” Ms Gittins said.

The project also collects and recycles other plastic waste such as fishing line, fishing nets, milk bottles and soft drink bottles.

The MiiMi Sea Country Ranger program at Bowraville is delivered via a collaboration between MiiMi Aboriginal Corporation, DPI Fisheries and is funded by the NSW Marine Estate Management Strategy.