Middle Harbour Creek among NSW’s “most contaminated waterways”

There might be a river in New South Wales free from microplastic contamination, but the state's top scientists can’t find it.

What happened: A study from the NSW Environment Protection Authority sampled 120 catchments across the state and failed to find a single body of water free from microplastics. 

The report ranked Middle Harbour Creek, Dee Why Lagoon and Manly Lagoon among the top 10 most contaminated waterways in the state.

Scientists conducting the assessment scooped water from the top 15cm of water and filtered it through a petri dish to see what synthetic treasures they could find.

The culprits? The majority of the pollution observed across the state falls into the categories of fragments, films and foams.

• Foam: the small balls that make up foam cups, insulation and packaging.

• Film: small pieces of soft plastic from plastic bags or packaging.

• Fragments: broken down bits of harder plastic items, like bottles or containers.

North Shore data showed a disproportionate amount of one plastic: synthetic turf.

In Middle Harbour, a quarter of the contaminants were fragments of fake grass. At Manly Lagoon it was 56.5 percent.

• In comparison, the statewide proportion of fake grass was 5.5%.

Thumbnail: NSW EPA