Plastic bag litter falls in UK seas

The authors say this could be due to several things – the introduction of charges for plastic bags across Europe, manufacturing changes and shifts in ocean dynamics. The research found a rise in the proportion of fishing debris. Some of the plastic debris is likely to be coming from outside the UK. The reduced proportion of plastic bags in marine litter was found from 2010 onwards. There was a drop of around 30% from the pre-2010 period compared with afterwards. If charging is a potential contributor, the downward trend could suggest that policies can affect the amount and distribution of certain marine litter items on short timescales. But in their scientific paper, the researchers add that this point is controversial. A change in the composition of plastic bags, which may speed up the rate at which they decompose, could also be another factor. Co-author Thomas Maes, who is a marine litter scientist at the government's Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), said: "It is encouraging to see that efforts by all of society, whether the public, industry, NGOs or government to reduce plastic bags are having an effect.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43658739

Posted by admin on Apr 7 2018. Filed under News Worldwide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry