This factory fire clean-up prevented 20 tonnes of microplastics from washing into the sea

The EPA managed to stop tonnes of plastic contaminants washing out into the sea. (ABC News: Margaret Paul)

In the early hours of a February morning, Carly McGregor was called to a large fire at a plastics factory in Keysborough, in Melbourne's outer south-east.

The senior environment protection officer with Victoria's Environment Protection Authority (EPA) was on site within 40 minutes, and immediately began observing the smell, the smoke, and the water running off the site.