Blue Planet highlights dangers to wildlife

The campaign to ban plastic straws and cut back on the use of plastics across the UK has been inspired by Sir David Attenborough.

The issues surrounding singleuse plastic were highlighted by Sir David’s BBC TV series Blue Planet II, which showed alarming footage of plastic pervading the marine environment.

One episode showed an albatross attempt to feed plastic to its young and a baby pilot whale apparently dead from consuming plastic contaminated milk from its mother.

Since the discoveries by Blue Planet there has been a call for a tax to be placed on single-use plastic.

Companies and bodies such as ScotRail, the National Trust for Scotland and the Scotch Whisky Association have pledged to move away from plastic straws.

The Scottish Government will no longer use them in any of their buildings and the Queen is banning plastic straws from her royal residences of Buckingham Palace and Holyrood Palace.

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham has also confirmed a ban across Scotland could be in place by next year.

The campaign comes amid a wider plastic strategy to tackle the issue of plastic waste across Europe, including plans by the EU to make all plastic packaging across the Continent recyclable or reusable by 2030.

Other commitments include a reduction in consumption of singleuse plastics and restrictions on the use of microplastics, such as microbeads found in some cosmetics.

As it stands, Europeans produce 25 million tons of plastic waste every year, but less than 30% of this is recycled.

Roseanna Cunningham says a ban could be in place by next year.