WHY WE’VE GOT TO ACT

8m tons of plastic dumped into the sea every year 1m sea birds a year die from eating plastic waste 100 per cent of marine turtles found to have ingested plastic 320m tons of plastic produced globally in 2016 135 per cent rise in beach litter - most of it plastic 46,000 pieces of plastic in every square mile of ocean 7 years’ landfill capacity in England 340 landfill sites deal with 45m tons of waste a year 5,000 items of plastic found per mile of beach in UK 150 plastic bottles litter each mile of UK beach 500bn single-use plastic bags used globally per year 290,000 signatures on petition calling for a bottle deposit scheme in England and Wales 2050 – the year there will be more plastic in the sea than fish