A large poo-shaped plastic sculpture adorns Bondi Beach in Sydney to highlight the amount of waste being dumped in the ocean.
Standing four metres high, the playful piece represents the volume of plastic dumped in the world's oceans every 30 seconds.
The work is one of more than 100 initiatives taking place globally on World Environment Day and a reminder that plastic now dwarfs every other kind of litter found on Australian shores.
Global plastic pollution could be slashed by 80 per cent by 2040 if plastics were reused, recycled or replaced with alternative materials, a recent United Nations Environment Program report found.
"The way we produce, use, and dispose of plastics is polluting ecosystems, creating risks for human health and destabilising the climate," the UN program's executive director Inger Andersen said.
Plastic production has increased exponentially over recent decades with 400 million tonnes of plastic waste generated every year, according to the UN.
"We are in the middle of an overwhelming toxic tidal wave as plastic pollutes our environment and negatively impacts human rights in a myriad of ways over its life cycle," special rapporteurs and environment experts David R Boyd and Marcos Orellana said in a report released on Thursday.
The placement of the plastic poo on Bondi Beach is a project led by B-Corp Better Packaging Co, an Australian company headquartered in New Zealand.
Australian Associated Press
