Everyone on the Mail's plastic pick up will be tackling this scourge
TODAY, as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018 in London formally begins, I will be urging our fellow Commonwealth countries to join in a campaign which I know the daily Mail and its readers care passionately about: the fight against marine plastics.
I will also be leading by example with the announcement that the Government will eliminate the use of plastic straws, stirrers and plastic- stemmed cotton buds.
We are clogging up one of the earth’s greatest natural resources with harmful plastic and – for the sake of this and future generations – we must take action now.
our oceans are essential to life on our planet, and support hundreds of millions of people worldwide in their livelihoods – and here in the UK, as a great island nation, we are rightly proud of our coastal landscape and spectacular beaches.
But pollution, climate change and over-fishing are fundamentally altering key marine ecosystems. Plastic pollution is perhaps the most visible of these threats. Latest estimates suggest that 12million tonnes of plastic are entering the oceans every year, equivalent to a rubbish truck full of plastic being dumped into the sea every 40 seconds.
I am clear we must act now to preserve the health of our oceans, and I have been hugely heartened by the passion and energy shown by the daily Mail’s campaign and the public at large in this fight. That’s why this week, as leaders from across the Commonwealth come together to discuss some of the most pressing issues of our time, we must make the most of this unique opportunity to galvanise international action and make a real difference.
I will be encouraging countries across the Commonwealth to sign up to the newly formed Commonwealth Clean oceans Alliance ( CCoA), as seven have already done.
I hope that together we will use the opportunity this week presents for us to go further.
It is the ambition of the Government I lead to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste, much of which