Malcolm Doyle is as mad as hell about plastic pollution on our beaches and oceans and, what's more, he's prepared to do something about it. Last year, the 28-year-old spent his annual leave cleaning up 60 beaches from Adelaide to Port Douglas. He estimates two-thirds of the litter was plastic, especially flimsy takeaway bags, beverage bottles and coloured bottle tops that some sea birds mistake as food. "I never felt so positive from the community support and disheartened by the level of waste at the same time," he recalls.

Recent headlines warning that our oceans will have more plastic than fish by 2050 may seem incredible, but in reality it may be worse, observes Doyle. The throwaway society has gone global, with plastic production predicted to double in the next 20 years, according to Science magazine. The Plastic Vortex, the swirling mass of garbage bobbing in the north Pacific Ocean, is already twice the size of Texas, according to Greenpeace. Now scientists, who have got better at detecting chemicals in our bodies, are finding that even tiny quantities of plastic toxins can have potentially serious impacts on human health.

Malcolm Doyle. Credit:David Solm

"Plastic pollution is much more dangerous in the oceans than on land," insists Doyle, who has lived in coastal areas all his life, from Invercargill and Dunedin in New Zealand to Christies Beach in Adelaide, where he lives now. "Plastic has its purpose, but using it for sheer convenience, for Oreos packets and bottles of mineral water, is terrible."

On the eve of Clean Up Australia Day, Doyle, who works in security, says that reducing single-use plastic bags and recycling plastic bottles should be just a start when millions of marine animals are dying daily from plastic poisoning. His group Our Coast Our Mission, which regularly organises voluntary beach cleans across South Australia, will be especially busy tomorrow. And before you ask, Doyle and our photographer removed every last plastic straw from the sand after our photo shoot.