Gove: I’m haunted by the plastic in our seas
Minister, charities and public call for action after 11m viewers see heartrending cost of ocean pollution
‘It’s imperative we do more’
MICHAEL Gove vowed action on plastic pollution last night after admitting he had been left ‘haunted’ by shocking scenes in Blue Planet II.
The BBC documentary – seen by nearly 11million viewers – featured a pilot whale carrying her dead newborn around for days, reluctant to let go.
The programme suggested that it might have been poisoned by its mother’s own polluted milk.
The footage led to an outpouring of anger from viewers, charities and campaign groups yesterday.
The Environment Secretary said the documentary had made the case to tackle the scourge of plastic rubbish unstoppable.
In a series of tweets, Mr Gove said: ‘Still haunted by last night’s Blue Planet II – the imperative to do more to tackle plastic in our oceans is clear. We at Defra [Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs] will work urgently to identify further action.’
The Environment Secretary’s department was already considering introducing a deposit scheme on plastic bottles in England – similar to that in Scotland.
The Treasury is expected to consider a carrier-bag style tax on single-use plastic items – such as throwaway trays for ready meals. The Government has already promised to outlaw plastic microbeads in cosmetics, and introduced the 5p levy on plastic bags which has seen their use fall dramatically.
But green groups, MPs and academics yesterday called for even tougher measures to reduce the eight million tons of plastic being dumped into our oceans every year – killing sealife and even ending up in the fish we eat.
They suggested measures including more water fountains in public places and a ban on plastic cutlery and nonrecyclable cups.
The Daily Mail has been at the forefront of campaigns to stop the tide of plastic poison polluting the planet.
Last night politicians from the other main parties backed calls for urgent action to tackle the plastic crisis. Mary Creagh, Labour chairman of the Commons environmental audit committee, called for a tax on new and non-recyclable plastic.
‘Every day we know that 15million plastic bottles go to landfill, are littered or incinerated and less than one in ten are made from recycled material,’ she said.
‘These containers are destroying our seas and disrupting our marine life. The figures are mindboggling and set to increase. We need to tax new plastic and plastic that can’t be recycled – we need to phase it out at source by taxing companies who use it.’
Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Tim Farron said: ‘Britain should be leading the way in tackling this crisis. We must end the wasteful throwing away of billions of pieces of plastic debris, from bottles to coffee cups, that end up being dumped into our oceans.’
on Sunday night’s Blue Planet II, fish and turtles were shown struggling to swim through fishing ropes, plastic sacking and debris including bottles and tubes of paint.
Sir David Attenborough warned the 10.8million viewers who tuned in: ‘Unless the flow of plastics and industrial pollution into the world’s oceans is reduced, marine life will be poisoned by them for many centuries to come. The creatures that live in the Big Blue are perhaps more remote than any animals on the planet, but not remote enough, it seems, to escape the effects of what we are doing to their world.’
Tisha Brown, an oceans campaigner for Greenpeace, said: ‘Because plastic is so durable, we need measures which stop any plastic waste ending up in our oceans, because that is always going to be a lot cheaper than getting it out once it’s in there.’
Julian kirby of Friends of the Earth said: ‘Blue Planet viewers were rightly shocked by plastic pollution – it has an appalling impact on wildlife, and with plastics turning up in our drinking water and fish dinners, it’s a massive health worry too.
‘ It’s good news people are pledging to cut down on plastic, but we need governments to act urgently to end plastics pollution altogether. Companies should also be required to design-out waste – there’s simply no excuse any more for products being made in materials which can’t be recycled.’
He said it was the Government’s duty to provide recycling infrastructure and the responsibility of companies to use compostable alternatives to plastic.
WHO could fail to be moved by the extraordinary pictures – screened on the BBC’s Blue Planet II – of a mother pilot whale refusing to abandon her calf for several days after it had died?
They inspired intense pity and rage in almost equal measure, after Sir David Attenborough suggested the calf may have been poisoned by its mother’s milk, contaminated by the huge volumes of toxic plastic she had ingested from the polluted ocean. The Mail has campaigned long and passionately against the unnecessary use of the plastics that pollute our seas and landscape. And the Government has responded – first with the plastic carrier bag charge, which led to an 80 per cent fall in usage, then with a ban on pernicious microbeads.
Even now it’s considering a deposit scheme for plastic bottles. But we must be bolder. Imaginative schemes are needed to reduce our consumption of everything from plastic straws to polystyrene coffee cups.
The Blue Planet pictures may be a tipping point. More than ever, the public demands an end to this loathsome scourge.