Decline in plastic bags on seabed suggests measures to tackle waste are working
Experts say success of strategy needs to be replicated with other plastic items such as coffee cups and bottles
The number of plastic bags found on the seabed has plummeted, suggesting efforts to combat plastic pollution are working.
Government scientists compiled data on 25 years’ worth of plastic trawled from the bottom of the sea to examine litter trends in the waters surrounding the UK.
While the findings have been heralded as evidence of successful policies to reduce plastic pollution, experts say the report shows that other items need to be dealt with as vigorously as plastic bags.
Despite the reduction in carrier bags, the overall amount of deep-sea litter remained roughly constant due to an increase in the number of other plastic items, including bottles and fishing debris.
The new research comes shortly after another report produced for the government that concluded the amount of plastic in the world’s oceans is set to treble within a decade.
Pledging to tackle this “scourge”, the government has implemented various measures to deal with plastic waste – most recently bottle deposit schemes.
Charges on supermarket carrier bags have led to an 80 per cent drop in plastic bag use across England, and ministers have hailed this move as a victory in the war on plastic waste.
The scientists behind the new research at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) have suggested the trend they observed on the sea floor could be partly a result of this action.
“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,” said Dr Thomas Maes, a marine litter scientist at Cefas and the report’s lead author.
