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 […]
Wetlands not Wastelands Project

Plastic Collective partners with Earthwatch, Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, and Coca-Cola Australia Foundation to tackle marine pollution in the Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria is one of Australia’s most beautiful geographic and diverse locations. The Gulf is situated in Northern Queensland, enclosed on the west by Arnhem Land and on the east […]
Global Good Collective becomes Plastic Neutral

Plastic Collective is proud to announce that Global Good Collective has become certified Plastic Neutral with their plastic packaging for their new product range – Bamboo toiletry paper. To become Plastic Neutral, Global Good Collective has joined a growing number of companies using Plastic Credits who purchase plastic credits equivalent to the weight of their plastic packaging footprint. Plastic […]