PARADISE POLLUTED
Waters of coral beauty spot choked with plastic waste
famed for having the highest concentration of marine species in the world, it is a diver’s paradise.
Tourists come to marvel at the 1,700 species of fish, 338 types of coral as well as the crabs, shrimp and sea turtles of Verde Island Passage.
But, according to an investigation, the Philippines beauty spot is choking in plastic waste, with food wrappers floating in its blue waters. The discarded products include toothpaste and coffee packaging made by Nestlé, Unilever, and Colgate Palmolive.
abigail aguilar of Greenpeace said: ‘This is undeniable proof of how irresponsible singleuse plastic production by fast-moving consumer goods companies threatens our pristine environment. If big companies such as Nestlé and Unilever don’t respond to our calls for reduction in single-use plastic production, these places of paradise like Verde Island Passage, will be lost.’
Studies show a truckload of plastic enters the oceans every minute – eight million tons in the average year. In the Philippines the average shopper uses 174 plastic bags a year, while the country as a whole throws away three million nappies a day.
The daily mail campaigns to reduce plastic pollution and is urging readers to take part in the Great British Spring Clean, launched by Keep Britain Tidy, between march 22 and april 23.
So far 224,647 public-spirited people have volunteered their time.
Greenpeace sent its Rainbow Warrior ship to the Philippines for a three-day underwater exploration of the Verde Island Passage, a zone which provides food and livelihoods for more than two million people.
The shocking pictures taken by the mission show the toll that plastic is having on marine life. One image shows a crab trapped inside a discarded clear plastic cup. Others show sachets of beauty products trapped in coral as well as fish swimming past Colgate toothpaste packets. Nestlé and Unilever are responsible for a quarter of the branded throwaway plastic driving the plastic pollution crisis in the Philippines, according to the Global alliance for Incinerator alternatives. miss aguilar said: ‘Once again, this report suggests that although countries in southeast asia are being blamed for the plastic pollution crisis, the responsibility lies with multinational corporations. These companies are responsible for this crisis and the only solution is for them to significantly reduce the production of throwaway plastics and move toward refill and reuse systems for their customers throughout the world. It’s time to reject overconsumption and the corporations that continue to sell it to us.’
a spokesman for Unilever said: ‘We take the issue of plastic waste very seriously and are committed to reducing our plastic footprint. We believe that plastic packaging is a resource which must be managed efficiently and effectively to ensure it stays in the economy and out of waterways and oceans.
‘The challenges associated with single-use plastics require urgent action from the whole industry.’ Colgate- Palmolive said in a statement: ‘The company will continue to innovate to reduce and eliminate unnecessary and problematic plastic packaging – 98 per cent of our packaging is now PVC-free, and our goal is to be 100 per cent PVC-free by next year.’ a spokesman for Nestlé said: ‘We understand and share people’s concern about the plastic waste issues that we face in the Philippines. We remain steadfast in our commitment that 100 per cent of our packaging should be recyclable or reusable by 2025.
‘We have been accelerating our efforts in finding solutions to address the problem. We have identified several materials which we will be phasing out that are not recyclable or hard to recycle.’
‘Unnecessary and problematic’