The Australian Microplastic Assessment Project (AUSMAP), a citizen science project that is tracking plastic pollution along Australia’s coast and waterways, has won the 2021 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science.

The push by the development lobby to stop new green spaces and tree canopy will harm present and future generations as killer urban heat arrives with climate change, a peak environment group said today.

The NSW Land and Environment Court today rejected the Gilead Koala protection case against Lendlease, brought by local community group, Save Sydney’s Koala (South West). Conservationists, said they would continue the fight.   

The Australian Microplastic Assessment Project (AUSMAP) which is tracking microplastic pollution along Australia’s waterways has been selected as a finalist for the 2021 Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources Eureka Prize for Innovation in Citizen Science. 

Total Environment Centre welcomed the final decision on the “More sun for everyone” reforms proposed by TEC and ACOSS, as a balanced and fair approach.

Containers for Change - the 10cent refund scheme - has failed to meet its 2020/21 target of 79% recycling. COEX, the scheme manager tried to hide this by removing all reference to the target on its website.  

Environment groups are calling on the NSW Government to include best practise mandatory standards for tree canopy cover, climate action, parkland and urban heat mitigation in a new planning policy due to take effect for all urban areas by the end of 2021.

TEC has proposed 9 critical principles on which Greater Sydney Parklands agency should be based covering - more protection of the environment; no sale; extensive public consultation.  See our submission here.

With the boom in rooftop solar and other distributed energy resources (DER), the opportunity exists to change the dominant paradigm of centralised control of the energy system to one based on local resources and democratic governance — but this opportunity must be recognised and acted on quickly to prevent new energy being stuck in the old model. TEC’s Designing DERtopia discussion paper is intended to get the ball rolling. 

An appallingly bad proposal to give developers flexibility over environmental standards for all urban areas in NSW is condemned by Total Environment Centre.  The proposed Design and Place State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) must go back to the drawing board.

For the first time, hard numbers on the benefits of offgrid energy systems in meeting the challenge of climate change, are now available.

It’s not well known that 98% of cigarette butts are made from plastic and they are the most littered plastic pollution item breaking up into billions of pieces of microplastics in the ocean. They also contain toxic chemicals.