This is our Blighted planet
Attenborough’s cameraman calls
Sir David Attenborough’s mult i - award- winning Scottish cameraman has urged FM Nicola Sturgeon to act now on banning all plastic wet wipes.
Doug Allan is world-renowned for his work on BBC programmes including Life, Planet Earth and The Blue Planet.
The marine biologist has witnessed the impact of non- biodegradable wipes on marine environments around the globe.
Now he is calling on the Scottish Government to lead the UK in getting rid of them.
He said: “I have seen the damage that these plastic wet wipes are doing.
“From the point of v iew of conserving our oceans and beaches, we need to stop flushing these things down the toilet and ideally get rid of them altogether.
“They cause a disgusting and unsightly mess on our beaches and they take years to break down.
“But the pollution doesn’t stop there because they also then contribute hugely to the problems we have with microplastics.
“These microplastics end up in the marine environment to get ingested by all sorts of animals.
“Mussel beds, for example, draw in a huge amount of water for food and they can’t distinguish between the plastic and the nutrition that they need, so the plastic ends up in the mussel and the mussel’s blood.
“Bacteria exist in the ocean that are quite harmless in low concentrations but they can grow on the sharp surface of these microplastics leading to concentrations that can be harmful to animals that eat them.
“The plastics can also find their way into the human food chain, so it is a huge problem.
“We were ahead of the curve when it came to getting rid of plasticstemmed cotton buds and plastic straws and we have the opportunit y to do the same with this.
“I think it would have 100 per cent pub l ic support if the S c o t t i sh Government was to lead the way on this and ban wet wipes containing plastic now, especially when you have alternatives on the market. I would love to see them enacting something like that in law – it is a no-brainer really.
“From Scottish Water’s point of view, they will absolutely want a ban because of the huge impact of wet wipes in terms of blocking of sewers and waterways.
“It is a huge problem and, of course, they would love people to stop throwing these things down the toilet.
“But these non-biodegradable wet wipes are also having a terrible impact on our beaches and marine environment.
“This is really bad for people who want to enjoy these beautiful places and also for the thousands of animals that live there.”
Fife-born Doug has captured some of the most stunning footage of the natural world, both above and below water.
He has a degree in marine biology
and has won a string of Bafta and Emmy awards.
Attenborough said Doug was “immune to most of the limitations that govern other humans” and “totally without fear” in his work.
Wet w ipes were a major component of an 820f t- long “fatberg” weighing the same as 19 elephants that was found in a London sewer in 2017.
They had congealed with fats, oils and grease into a horrific solid mass that had to be flushed out.
Once flushed down the toilet, wet wipes make their way to the coast and sea through sewer overflows. These are used to relieve pressure on the system from things like heavy rainfall or a lack of capacity in the sewer system.
During the Great British Beach Clean in September 2021, nearly 6000 wet wipes were recorded by volunteers across the UK.
Scotland recorded the highest number of wet wipes, with 25 found per 328ft of beach, making them one of the most common items found.
Cather ine Gemmel l , 32, a conservation officer at the Marine Conservation Society, said: “I have picked thousands of wet wipes from
Cramond Beach in Edinburgh and I can confidently say they are one of the biggest pollution problems that we have.
“We find dead seabirds and fish all the time that have likely died because they have eaten plastic and wet wipes or become tangled in them. And it’s not just the animals that suffer, it is always a shame to see children playing in the sand at the beach and having wet wipes rather than shells on their sand castles.
“The problem is that 90 per cent of the wet wipes on the market contain plastics and they can take up to 100 years to fully break down as a result.
“And, even then, you will have the microplastics, which are a growing and awful problem.
“We really need to ban wet wipes containing plastic and to move to biodegradable plastic free ones which have passed the ‘safe to flush’ test.
“It would be an easy thing to do and it would make a huge dif ference. The Scottish Government has got an excel lent opportunity to blaze a trail on this and just get it done.”
They cause a mess on our beaches and take years to break down