Page 24 - Litter Toolkit

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Marine Litter

Our ocean makes up three-quarters of our planet. No plastic in the ocean could weigh more than all the problem and members of the public were inquisitive
matter where we live, we all depend on our ocean for fish. Plastic impacts on the entire ecosystem, marine and supportive of their actions.
the food we eat and the air we breathe. life get caught up in it, eat it and live in it. It also has
a direct impact on our health, acting as a sponge for
Marine litter is human-created waste that has toxins which can end up in our food chain.”
deliberately or accidentally been released into a
waterway, lake, sea or ocean. There are some great initiatives for removing litter
from our waters, however the scale of the problem is
A large proportion of litter from land ends up as such that extraction can only be a part of the solution
marine litter through rain, flash flooding or sewage and land-based waste needs to be addressed from
systems. It has been estimated that around 80% of manufacture to distribution and disposal to stop it
marine debris is from land-based sources and the becoming marine litter.
remaining 20% is from ocean-based sources.
School example
Year after year, plastic makes up most of the debris
found on our beaches, both in the UK and in many Barry Island Primary School in the Vale of Glamorgan
other countries around the world. In the Southern held a pirate themed clean-up of their local beach
Hemisphere, half the debris found on remote island and surrounding areas. They dressed up as pirates, Ysgol Wdig in Pembrokeshire has been working hard
beaches can be made of plastic and there is huge gave themselves marine life names, created sea in the community by taking part in litter picks and
rubbish dump twice the size of the USA floating on creatures from marine litter and researched litter writing in their local newspaper to raise awareness
the Pacific Ocean. pollution impacts on our seas and oceans. The pupils’ of the dangers of litter in our oceans. A recent
activities raised awareness in the local community partnership with Sea Trust saw pupils creating a
As much as 85% of catalogued marine litter is made and members of the public were questioned about display of plastic bag jellyfish at the Ocean Lab
up of plastic and polystyrene. littering behaviour. Building in Goodwick, reinforcing the message that
plastic is harmful for sea creatures.
According to Sky Ocean Rescue: “Every minute, the Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan, Conwy, adopted a local beach
equivalent of a rubbish truck load of plastic goes in along the Wales Coast Path, carrying out clean-ups
to our oceans. It never decomposes and will remain of plastics and other items of litter that could be
there forever. If nothing changes, by 2050 all the harmful to wildlife. This raised the profile of the litter