It’s just luck that I can still run up spiral stairs at 91... I don’t follow a special diet or exercise regime
At 91, it seems incredible that Sir David Attenborough could take on a role as challenging as advising a Cabinet minister. But his passionate plea to reduce plastic waste inspired the Government to consult the TV environmentalist on how best to tackle the problem.
Last month, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said he was “haunted” by Blue Planet II, which documented how sea creatures are dying from ingesting the nondegradable waste.
Mr Gove vowed to take action to reduce single use items and enhance recycling standards.
Shortly afterwards – just days before China stopped accepting 500,000 tonnes of British waste shipped there for recycling – he invited Sir David to an environment conference where the pair spent half an hour locked in conversation about the issue.
“We discussed plastic,” explains Sir David, adding: “China will take no more from us. Improved recycling could work. I wish we could discover some way we could destroy plastics and not spend all this time sieving and sorting them into this kind and that kind or reusing them. I just want to destroy the damn thing.
“I don’t know, it may well be that people who know more about it than me might say ‘ he does not know what he’s talking about, these very complex chemical structures cannot be broken’.”
With 3.7 million tonnes of plastic used in the UK each year, Sir David says he