Norfolk environmentalist says a global ban on exporting plastic waste is needed to help marine life
9/10 pieces of litter on beaches were found to be things like plastic bottles, cans and lids
Last updated 30th Jul 2024
An environmentalist in Norfolk is telling us that a global ban on exporting plastic waste is needed, to ensure micro-plastics don't do further damage to marine life.
It comes after research from The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) revealed there's been an 80% drop in plastic carrier bags being found on beaches in the past decade.
"We can be world-leaders here, we can really step up and make a difference"
Gary Champion is from the Green Party and represents the Sewell Ward at Norwich City Council: "Plastic is a useful resource but the way we're using it is to the determent of our natural environment, but we're very capable of altering these habits if we had the political will to do so.
"We need to look at the environmental data so that we're understanding the sheer significance of the situation, as is. We also need to build the infrastructure needed, so we can deal with the rubbish that we produce.
"Overall, we need to take a donut economic approach to this as a nation. Any rubbish that we create or import, we need to be recycling it here and not exporting it.
"We can be world-leaders here, we can really step up and make a difference."
What else did the MCS' research find?
9/10 pieces of litter on beaches beach were found to be things like plastic bottles, cans and lids.
They were found on 97% of UK beaches during the clean-ups last year, according to data from the charity.
It's now calling for a reduction in litter such as single use plastic cutlery, polystyrene cups, balloon sticks and food containers on beaches after bans in England, Wales and Scotland over the past two years.
The MCS also is calling for the new Government to press ahead with an all-inclusive "deposit return scheme", with charges on drinks containers that are refunded when they are returned for recycling.
"Starting to see a positive effect of the reduction on our beaches"
Lizzie Price, UK beachwatch manager at the MCS, said part of the value of the data gathered by beach cleans is it can highlight "hotspots" of rubbish, such as period products, wet wipes and cotton bud sticks that show where untreated sewage pollution is a particular problem, and help drive action.
She said: "Collecting the data every single time is really vital for us to push for change and having that robust legacy of data for 30 years now means we can really explain the problem.
"We've seen an 80% drop in plastic bags on our beaches, and we're now starting to see a drop in plastic cotton bud sticks, a drop in cutlery, so any of the policies they've put in are starting to see a positive effect of the reduction on our beaches.
"It allows us to then say these work, and now there's other single use items that we're finding that we also want to see change to, things like drinks litter."
What's the Government said on this?
In May last year- the UK joined 52 other countries in calling for a global plastic pollution treaty.