Country Diary

By 2050 our oceans will contain more plastic than fish — a haunting vision of a polluted world and one that we can all help to prevent

- Mike Short

I recently saw a shocking image highlighting one of the perils of all that plastic litter that is drifting around our oceans. The photograph, which showed the skeletal remains of a dead juvenile albatross — a decaying pile of feathers and bone with its body cavity crammed full of plastic waste — has apparently been doing the rounds for several years. Though I had a broad understanding of some of the underlying issues associated with the global plastic problem, this distressing photograph of what is arguably the world’s most enigmatic seabird encouraged me to dig deeper. Sadly, the scale of the problem is far, far worse than I’d realised.

Ocean plastic pollution is now regarded as one of the greatest environmental threats on Earth and it is rightly rocketing up the international agenda. Globally, 311 million tonnes of plastic were produced in 2014 and that is predicted to double over the next 20 years. It comes as no surprise that increasing plastic production has not been matched by a corresponding increase in recycling rates. In Europe, despite rigorous legislation and adoption of the most advanced waste management systems, only 30 per cent of a total of 25.8million tonnes of waste plastic generated in 2014 were recycled.