Sustainability - Iplex Cleans Up Microplastics

Iplex environmental awareness day New Brighton - Christchurch

Overview
Iplex Pipelines is on a journey to learn what we can do better as people that share, live and enjoy New Zealand’s amazing environment. To do this we need to give our
people the ability to engage in activities that makes us think and act differently to what we have done in the past.

Objectives of the day
• To give our people & their families the opportunity to engage
• To learn about micro plastics in the environment
• To learn what we can do better tomorrow

What did the Iplex team do
Raquelle from Algalita South Pacific (an organisation dedicated to addressing the issues of plastics in our oceans) ran an educational session for Iplex staff and their families about micro plastics in the environment. The team then spent the next few hours gathering and sorting rubbish at New Brighton South estuary using special filter bins to sort and identify the materials.

What did we learn
The amount of unnecessary man made materials in our environment is scary. Everyone involved in this day came away with a far better understanding of what happens to the things we consume. Plastic is not always bad; however when it is uncontrolled it can have a devastating affect on our environment.

We learnt…
• There are a lot of single use plastics used.
• That a lot of people don’t dispose of them properly
• Rubbish dropped many kilometres away inland finds its way to the sea.
• Plastics may break down into smaller pieces but they are always there.

What can we do differently tomorrow
• Take these learnings back to our workplace
• Think about how we can act differently
• Have discussions with our work mates on how to make tomorrow a better place.