Almost half the 25,000 sewer blockages in Yorkshire last year were caused by wet wipes flushed down toilets, Yorkshire Water has said. The company said 11,946 of the 25,976 blockages were caused by wipes which did not break down in sewers. Yorkshire Water warned some wipes contained plastic which caused them to snag in pipes. […]
Record number of plastic nurdles found on beaches as environmental groups call for tougher laws. A survey has now found a record number on beaches around the world and campaigners want new laws in place to help reduce spillages. Nurdles are tiny pellets of plastic used by industry to produce nearly all of our plastic […]
The UK’s first-ever Autumn Water Watch has been launched to help assess the health and quality of the nation’s freshwater environments. Running from Friday 14 October until Sunday 16 October, the Autumn Water Watch calls on people up and down the UK to spend just 15 minutes observing their local waters in the form of a […]
A dozen companies are responsible for 70% of the branded packaging pollution found on UK beaches and the environment, charity Surfers Against Sewage has said. Almost 4,000 citizen science volunteers across the UK collected litter along 13,000 miles of coasts, countryside, streets, rivers and green spaces over the past 12 months, producing data […]
Scotland has become the first part of the UK to implement a ban on many of the most problematic single-use plastics, as legislation comes into force. The ban means it will be an offence for businesses in Scotland to provide the items – which include plastic cutlery, plates and stirrers. Around 700 million of these […]
Scientists are calling for the production of new plastics to be capped in a bid to cut pollution and tackle the climate crisis. In March 2022, 175 countries unanimously agreed to adopt a global plastic treaty to stop plastic pollution. Not only is the treaty set to address the issue of plastic waste, but it will address the “full lifecycle of plastics,” from the extraction […]
Tiny particles that rub off of tyres are likely harming freshwater and coastal estuary ecosystems. The first study, published in Chemosphere last month, found that exposure to tyre particles had harmful effects on organisms from coastal estuaries, while the second, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, found the same for freshwater organisms. Both studies grow out of […]
Both the Welsh Government and Defra have made announcements regarding end-of-life fishing gear. Firstly, the Welsh Government is taking action against marine litter as it becomes the first UK nation to introduce a recycling scheme for fishing gear. A press release has stated that: ‘The first collection, which took place today on Global Recycling Day […]