You may have already heard that there are floating islands of plastic trash in the Great Pacific, or seen pictures of marine and bird life caught up in plastic debris. The reality is, the equivalent of one rubbish truck of plastic waste is being added to the sea every minute.
This plastic is now turning up in every corner of our planet - from Australian beaches to Arctic glaciers - and now it is entering the food chain.
According to a study by Greenpeace, tiny pieces of plastic have been found in around 170 types of commonly consumed seafood including mussels, lobsters, oysters and fish such as bluefin tuna and grey mullet.
The amount of plastic we absorb from our food will only get worse as plastic pollution increases. To highlight the extent of the problem, researchers from the University of Ghent in Belgium believe Europeans currently consume up to 11,000 pieces of plastic in their food each year.
It’s time we came together to tackle this plastic problem head on and work towards a sustainable solution.
Join us in calling on big corporations to reduce their plastic footprint.
More information
CBC News. 28 January 2017.
South China Morning Post. 6 July 2016.
Sky News. 25 January 2017.
