War on plastics declared as oceans fill up with rubbish
- ‘We cannot continue this business as usual, we need to change the throwaway culture we have developed,’ says activist Miriam Kopp
Faced with images of turtles smothered by plastic bags, beaches carpeted with rubbish and islands of trash floating in the oceans, conservationists say the world is waking up to the need to tackle plastic pollution.
Stories on social media of giant seas of floating waste or a beached whale in Indonesia with 6kg (13 pounds) of plastic in its stomach have moved plastic pollution into the spotlight.
“There is no question plastic is having a moment,” said George Leonard, chief scientist at Ocean Conservancy. “We are in a moment in time where we are starting to stare the problem in the face, and we’re quite optimistic and hopeful that we can solve it.”
Leonard and other environmental experts are optimistic the exposure will make the problem of plastics hard to ignore and focus attention on how best to deal with such waste.
