Plastic pollution
May Announces £60m Fund to Clear Oceans of Plastic ‘Scourge’
Prime Minister Theresa May has pledged £61.4m in funding to turn the tide against ocean plastic, as part of a new initiative from Commonwealth countries to tackle the problem. Announcing the move on Saturday, May dubbed plastic waste a “scourge”…
Plastic Bag Bans Actually Work, Study of European Waters Shows
If you ever feel like the world’s plastic nightmare might never end, a new study shows proof that plastic pollution legislation actually works. There are significantly fewer plastic bags on the seafloor ever since a number of European countries introduced…
Microplastics Found in Fertilisers Being Applied to Gardens and Farmland
Many organic fertilisers being applied to gardens and farms contain tiny fragments of plastic, according to a new study. Widely considered a problem affecting the oceans, this work suggests microplastics may actually be far more pervasive. Having entered the soil,…
‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ Sprawling with More Debris than Thought
An enormous area of rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean is teeming with far more debris than previously thought, heightening alarm that the world’s oceans are being increasingly choked by trillions of pieces of plastic. The sprawling patch of detritus…
Microplastics Pollute Most Remote and Uncharted Areas of the Ocean
Microplastics have been found in some of the most remote and uncharted regions of the oceans raising more concerns over the global scale of plastic pollution. Samples taken from the middle of the South Indian Ocean – at latitude 45.5…
Campaign to Create World’s Largest Sanctuary in Antarctic Ocean Gains Momentum
Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise is on its way to Antarctica, where the crew on board will be the first humans ever to visit the seafloor in the Weddell Sea. The three-month expedition will aim to further the case for a…
‘World-Leading’: UK Microbead Ban Comes Into Force
The first phase of the UK ban on plastic microbeads will come into effect today, as the government moves to strengthen its crack down on marine plastic pollution. The ban on the manufacture of microbeads in ‘rinse-off’ products comes into…