Scott Wilson

Biography

We are living in a disposable society driven by our use of cheap, versatile and so called benign plastics. Each year millions of tonnes of plastics ends up in landfill while still another significant portion is littered, potentially forming marine debris. Litter is a globally recognised pollutant and is not only unsightly and costly to clean up but causes environmental impacts particularly to marine wildlife. My current research focuses on innovative approaches for documenting impacts of this litter and marine debris and providing practical management solutions. Working closely with local councils and regulators such as the NSW EPA and QLD EHP, research has helped influence state and local government policy and decision making. This research also involves national and international collaborative partnerships with ANSTO, RMIT University, Canterbury University (NZ), University of Venice (Italy), Haifa University (Israel), Putra University (Malaysia), Reunion University (France) and the Institute for Pacific Coral Reef Research (French Polynesia). A major emphasis of my research involves education, awareness and training of stakeholders and the broader public through partnerships with catchment management authorities and community and not for profit groups such as Healthy Waterways, Take 3 for the Sea, Clean Seas, Conservation Volunteers and Gidarjil Indigenous rangers. By working together on this issue, I feel we can all make a difference!

Research Interest

Marine debris, micro-plastics and litter assessment including: source tracking and indentification, load quantification and characterisation impact, toxicity and ecological risk assessment, litter bin and waste infrastructure audits, citizen science monitoring programme design and policy support.