Satellites pick out the plastic blackspots along Britain’s coast

SATELLITES have joined the battle against plastic pollution on our shorelines by beaming back images of blackspots to the authorities.

The UK Space Agency’s Space for Smarter Government programme al- lows emergency services, Whitehall departments and councils to view their neighbourhoods from the sky, to help them plan transport, monitor flooding risk or combat air pollution.

As part of the project, rolled out this week, the Environment Agency has be- gun using satellite images to monitor plastic pollution off Britain’s shores so it can get clean-up teams to the right places to protect wildlife.

Each year about 380million tons of plastic are produced globally and at least eight million tons end up in our seas and oceans.

Sam Gyimah, the science minister, said: “This is a great example of how we can use great British innovations to help tackle challenges facing us now and in the future.” The UK Space Agency says the images will provide an unprecedented level of detail of major British cities, transport networks, national parks and energy infrastructure. In an early pilot of the scheme Cherwell district council in Oxfordshire used the images to monitor the impact of HGV deliveries on traffic congestion and pollution.

Bournemouth borough council is also using the imagery to identify the best locations for electric vehicle charge points in the resort. The fire service could also use it to develop response plans for new housing estates, and the coastguard to track boats potentially being used for illegal fishing.

Sara Huntingdon, the programme manager, said: “We are trying something that has not been done before across the whole Government, and I am really excited to see the results. The images are being provided by Airbus from its Spot and Pleiades satellites.”