Addressing Plastic Pollution

This year, both World Environment Day (5 June) and World Oceans Day (8 June) invite and encourage us to reduce our plastic consumption for the sake of our natural places, our wildlife and our health. Plastic pollution on land and in the seas and oceans is now considered one of the great environmental challenges of our time. The facts are staggering:

•  80% of all pollution in the ocean comes from people on land (United Nations)

• Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by ocean plastic (National Geographic)

• 50 percent of the plastic we use is single use (World Environment Day)  


• By 2050, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by weight (Plastic Pollution Coalition)

• 19 billion pounds of plastic waste ends up in our oceans each year (Science)

•  Each cycle of a washing machine could release more than 700,000 microscopic plastic fibres into the environment (The Guardian)

This short video clip demonstrates the reliance people -us- have on plastic goods (01:58).

This week (4-10 June), when the environmental focus is on plastic pollution, a simple ‘mantra’ we could each adopt is: Use less plastic and recycle the plastic you must use.
The Clean Seas campaign offers us a number of tips & tricks we can each use to cut down on our plastic use. Visit the site here and consider taking the pledge