GREAT BRITISH SPRING CLEAN Foreign aid millions to help rid world of plastic
£6m cash boost for projects to tackle waste in poor countries
MILLIONS more in foreign aid cash will be used to tackle plastic pollution, Penny Mordaunt will announce today.
The International Development Secretary will unveil a doubling of the amount for plastic recycling schemes in poorer countries.
The £6million cash injection from the controversial foreign aid budget is designed to boost plastic recycling and reduce the amount of waste dumped.
Miss Mordaunt will invite bids from scientists and environmentalists for ways to clear the huge amount of existing plastic waste from rivers and oceans, where it is dangerous to wildlife.
The announcement is a further boost for the Daily Mail’s campaign to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution around the world. An estimated 90 per cent of plastic waste in the sea comes from just ten rivers in Africa and Asia.
And it comes as an astonishing 210,237 volunteers have pledged to join in with the Great British Spring Clean, which is being backed by the Daily Mail. The Keep Britain Tidy campaign is likely to be this year’s largest environmental event.
Miss Mordaunt will make her announcement alongside Sir David Attenborough at Parliament today. She will warn that plastic pollution is ‘one of the biggest threats to our oceans’ and argue everyone has a duty to the planet, future generations and the world’s poorest to sort out the issue of plastic waste.
She will say: ‘ The United Nations estimates that there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050, unless we act to reduce our use and improve how waste is managed, particularly in poorer countries.
‘That’s why I am doubling UK aid’s support to projects in developing countries to increase plastic recycling. This will create jobs and reduce the harmful impact of plastic waste in our oceans. Cleaning up our environment is a win for us all,’ she said. Support for pilot schemes will double from £3million to £6million, going towards improving plastic recycling in some of the world’s poorest countries.
Aid projects designed to combat plastic pollution have already begun in Commonwealth countries such as Ghana and Bangladesh, with another starting in Uganda within weeks.
Worldwide, around 8million tons of plastic waste is washed into the sea each year.
Microplastics come from a variety of sources including waste water containing fibres from synthetic clothes and textiles and road runoff containing fragments of tyres and paint. Their ingestion by sea creatures damages brains and other vital organs.
Last year, Theresa May pledged £ 66.4million to boost global research and help countries across the Commonwealth stop plastic waste from entering the oceans in the first place.
Announcing a major push against plastic pollution in the sea, she said using overseas aid money to combat plastic pollution was something ‘everyone wants’. Controversially, Britain is committed to spending 0.7 per cent of its gross domestic product on foreign aid – something Miss Mordaunt admitted was not sustainable in January.