Back to Litter....

Writing this blog I trawl many sites for facts and figures regarding waste, litter and our environment. A lot of it is scary, a lot of it I am sure is true... but, I feel is not in a context that is meaningful to 'everyday folk' - almost too much information or too large a statistic.

Yesterday I read a recent survey on Britain's beaches. This survey was held by the Marine Conservation Society, Beachwatch 2008. It removed 385,659 pieces of rubbish from 374 beaches during the survey. The average amount of rubbish found in half a mile was 3520 items which equates to more than 2 pieces for every 3ft of beach. Apart from making it difficult for us to sit down on a beach, without clearing away other peoples rubbish, the effect on marine life such as seals, seabirds, whales, dolphins and the odd turtle is devastating. The one-use plastic bag is a huge culprit and by mistaking this type of litter for food it can lead to starvation, poisoning and fatal stomach blockages.

The moral of this survey has to be to reduce pollution. One significant way to do this is to reduce one-use bags. Most of us think of one-use plastic bags as the type that we get from the supermarket to hold our groceries - and, yes, we are all doing a lot more on this front. Now we have to move this thinking to the fruit and vegetable area where we also use one-use bags - there is a great alternative and it is washable, can store your fruit and veg safely and is attractive. Look no further...