UK should lead way on plastics ban – MP
SOUTHPORT’S MP has called for the UK to lead the world in banning plastic packaging.
Speaking in a House of Commons debate on reducing plastic waste, Conservative MP Damien Moore said that it posed a huge threat to the marine life and public health, as well as damaging the local ecology and harming tourism to seaside towns such as Southport.
He argued that the UK having no plastic waste was “achievable” and raised the question of reducing the Government’s 25-year target for eliminating “avoidable” plastic waste.
He said: “It is terrifying that eight million tonnes of plastic are released into the ocean each year, and with the emergence of the new tiger economies, that number is sadly set to rise. Much of the plastic that finds its way into oceans ends up in one of the main ocean gyres, where it spins around in giant whirlpools, devastating marine life, and is almost impossible to remove.
“The plastic that does not fall into a gyre invariably floats around the sea until it washes up on land, damaging the local ecology, disrupting tourism, and presenting health hazards.
“The results of the great British beach clean undertaken by the Marine Conversation Society show that litter on our beaches is up by 10%, with a staggering 718 pieces of predominately plastic rubbish found in every 100-metre area cleaned.
“Southport’s beach is famously big and stretches out to the horizon. If we apply that statistic to the town’s beach, I dread to think how many pieces of plastic and other detritus are covering it at this very moment.”
Mr Moore added: “My constituents in Southport are weary of the damage that discarded plastic has done to the town, the beach and tourism, and they are keen for improvement over the next few years, rather than the next few decades.
“As we leave the EU, we have the chance to be a world leader in environmental standards, and ridding ourselves of plastic waste is the first step.
“Be it bottles, bags or microbeads, plastic has destroyed our oceans, killed our marine life, and ravaged our maritime environments for too long. It is my hope that we are now on the cusp of serious change.”