Trash landing
Film finds Skye’s the limit for plastic litter problem first noted by study 50 years ago
PLASTIC pollution ruining the environment on Skye for half a century has been highlighted in a film.
Short film 50 Years Of Litter On Skye hopes to raise awareness of the issue of coastal pollution – and the efforts to keep the isle’s beaches clean.
Working closely with local groups, scientists visited the island last summer to analyse the extent of the litter washed up by ocean currents.
It comes after lead researcher Dr Tom Stanton found a 50-year-old academic paper warning of the impact of plastics and rubbish being brought to Skye by sea.
The 1972 report, by Professor Gerald Scott, of
Birmingham’s Aston University, studied two of the island’s beaches – and noted the washed-up litter they found.
Prophetically, he warned the problem of plastic pollution would only continue to grow.
It comes as a study last year found global plastic production has risen 20 times faster than recycling capacity in the past 10 years – with nearly 70million tons of short-life plastic waste last year alone.
The film, produced by
Loughborough University, follows the team as they discover isolated beauty spots on Skye such as Camasunary – only accessible on foot or by boat – that 50 years on, remain carpeted in plastics.
Retracing Scott’s steps, Stanton and his team, visited the island last August.
Stanton said: “Scott found that the majority of litter derived from the ocean, not the ‘everyday picnickers’ he referenced – people dropping litter on land. Now, 50 years on, we got to use survey techniques that weren’t available to Scott such as drones and really accurate GPS logging.
“We have also spoken to members of the community who have been on the island for enough time to give us a picture of how litter on the island might have changed.”
He added: “But Scott foreshadowed what we see now – if we don’t do something about the litter there’s going to be beaches around the coast of the UK that are inundated with litter.”
In total, Dr Stanton’s team cleared around two tons of rubbish from the beaches while they were in Skye, logging 13,909 pieces of litter.
The majority was made up of old synthetic rope and net cut free from fishing vessels.