More plastics waste on British beaches
The British Marine Conservation Society has recently released its 2009 annual survey, finding that the amount of plastics waste such as bags, bottles, wrappers etc. has soared by 121%, nearly doubled, over the past 15 years. The survey reveals that about half of the litter is dumped by tourists, whereas 15% comes from fishing boats. Small quantities should come from sewage and fly tipping, but more than one third of the rubbish cannot be identified.
The menace was launched by the Daily Mail's Banish the Bags campaign, that blamed the danger of the plastic bags floating in the ocean every year and being swallowed by whales and turtles, which eventually die of starvation (in some parts of the ocean there are six times as many plastic fragments as there are plankton).