According to the data published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), there has been a dramatic rise in the amount of litter, especially plastic, found on the seabed around Britain.
Tim Farron, a Liberal Democrats spokesman on the environment, said: “It is particularly worrying to see such a sharp rise in plastic litter polluting our seas. Unless we take action, in a few years Blue Planet will have to be renamed Plastic Planet.”
Hugo Tagholm, the chief executive of Surfers Against Sewage, called for taxes and policy changes to increase recycling and reduce business and supermarket use of single-use plastics. He said DEFRA’s current consultation on deposit-return systems for plastic bottles was crucial.
Natalie Fee, the founder of the City to Sea campaign group, said: “This is sadly yet more evidence that the tide has yet to turn against plastic pollution and all the more of an incentive to really get the solutions embedded in mainstream culture.”
The production of plastics is forecast to double in the next 20 years.
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Source: The Guardian, 3 November 2017