There are 5 trillion bits of plastic in our oceans. Every year, 8 million tonnes of plastic waste gets added. That's the equivalent of 15 garbage bags full of plastic rubbish piled up on every meter of coastline around the world.
Can you imagine?
It's destroying our ecosystems and decimating our marine life. Not to mention the terrifying prospect of microplastics in our drinking water.
From beaches and rivers, to stormwater drains and gutters, plastic waste can all end up in our oceans.
Single use plastics are one of the biggest, and most solvable parts of the problem.
We need to stop consuming single-use plastics, so that companies stop packaging with it, and manufacturers stop producing it.
When we do use single-use plastics, we need to dispose of them properly for recycling where available. At worst, landfill is better than it ending up in our oceans.
We need to clean up plastics and other waste before it hits our oceans, and we need to clean up our oceans themselves.
There are some amazing projects going on around the world, but ultimately it's up to us to stop plastic at the source.