Launching the Plastic Collective Foundation: Supporting the Heroes Behind Plastic Recovery
Plastic Collective has been in operation since 2016 as a social enterprise–a for-profit business with the purpose of preventing plastic pollution. By creating innovative systems we have explored and worked within the fields of education, economics, community development, creative arts and manufacturing. From the beginning, my siblings (Steve and Dianne Hardman) and I created a […]
UN Business & Human Rights (UNHBR) Regional Forum Australia & New Zealand
“Lets start talking about people again, lets talk about exploitation”. – Chris Evans, Australian Anti-slavery Commissioner (UNBHR, 2025). Over 300 people from multiple business, research and civil sectors came together for the UN Business and Human Rights Regional Forum in Melbourne, hosted by UN Global Impact Network Australia. The 2-day conference focused on various Australian […]
When art meets ocean waste: Inside the Hunter Gatherer Networks movement
Explore how Indigenous artists are turning ghost gear and marine debris into stories, livelihoods, and resistance, and how the Hunter Gatherer app is building a new kind of cultural marketplace. Over the past 3 years we have been working with some amazing and inspiring indigenous rangers and artists who collect and transform marine debris and […]
Torres Strait Workshops- Transforming Trash to Treasure
The Hunter Gatherer Network team will visit the remote Torres Strait Islands in northern Australia (12-20th May), where these communities are seriously impacted by foreign coastal marine debris and ghost gear pollution. Louise Hardman (Plastic Collective) and Jeremy Sheehan (Bay School of Arts) will run a number of workshops in the Torres Strait Islands on how to transform […]
Ghostnet & Marine Debris Artwork Market Place App
New ghost net & marine debris artwork digital marketplace set up to support indigenous women of Cape York Wei’Num Aboriginal Art and Craft Corporation based in Northwest Cape York, have co-designed an Ocean Arts program called ‘Hunter Gatherers Mamas’ with Plastic Collective (PC) and Charles Sturt University (CSU), to transform marine litter into valuable artworks. […]
Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution & Marine Litter (GPML)
Recently (in April 2023) we proudly became an official member of the Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter (GPML), a multi-stakeholder partnership working together to find solutions to prevent marine litter and plastic pollution. This global platform facilitates cooperation between diverse stakeholders including governments, intergovernmental organisations, regional bodies, private and civil sectors and […]
Lower Gulf Indigenous Recycling Centre Kicks Off
In August 2022, Plastic Collective delivered the final stage of an Indigenous Recycling Centre in the Gulf of Carpentaria. In response to the largest die-back of mangroves witnessed in the Lower Gulf region in 2016, a project focusing on mangrove health and plastic pollution was developed in a tripartite partnership of Plastic Collective (PC), Earthwatch […]
How are Marine Megafauna Impacted by Plastic Pollution?
Photograph by Jordi Chias sourced from National Geographic. “Marine litter has become a pervasive pollution problem affecting all of the world’s seas. It is widely documented that marine litter, in particular plastic, has negative impacts on marine wildlife, primarily due to ingestion and entanglement. Most cetacean species (more than 66%) are adversely affected by this […]
New Technology to Identify Plastics is Helping to Recycle Ghost Nets
Imagine shooting infrared beams at a material to work out what type of plastic material it is made from – that is what a ‘Spectro-photo-scope’ does for plastic! This Near Infrared Device (NIR) is also called BASF trinamix. One of the problems with recycling discarded plastics is knowing what type of plastic they are made […]
Land Management and Resource Recovery in the Gulf of Carpentaria
Indigenous Rangers Caring for County Wetlands Not Wastelands – Southern Gulf Kickoff In April, 2021 Plastic Collective (PC) and Earthwatch Australia (EW) made their way to northern Queensland to meet with Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation (CLCAC) in Normanton and Burketown, in the southern region of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Louise Hardman (founder/CEO- PC), Jock […]
