planet poisoned by plastic
'From Hawaiian beaches to the coast of Britain, we're paying a lethal price for our throwaway society.'
says TV adventurer
Simon Reeve
Hawaii is generally considered to be the one place in the world where you should be able to guarantee finding paradise. The beautiful tropical islands have been used as the setting for countless TV series and films, ranging from Lost to Jurassic Park. Isolated in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, distance alone should protect Hawaii’s spectacular landscapes and turquoise sea from the environmental problems facing the rest of the planet. So when I arrived in Hawaii, I was staggered to discover beaches covered in plastic rubbish washed up from around the world. Pristine sand was covered by old plastic toothbrushes, combs, shoes, belts and mouldings. Sam Gon, a Hawaiian conservationist, took me to one beach where 70 local volunteers were doing their best to remove tons of garbage. But as soon as it was cleaned, the waves dumped another mountain of rubbish.
The larger pieces of waste can be collected by hand. But when Sam and I dropped to our knees, I could see the surface of the beach was covered with millions of small plastic pellets, known as 'nurdles'. These are the raw material that factories use to form the infinite number of plastic products that fill our lives. These are dumped out of factories into our seas in their trillions.
Yet the big shock came when Sam told me to dig into the sand. Plastic doesn't biodegrade. Instead it breaks down into ever smaller pieces. Among the grains of sand were billions of tiny plastic flecks, which the pounding of the sea was reducing in size. As I dug through the plastic, I realised the sandy beach was being transformed into a plastic beach. A chill went down my spine.
From the beaches of Hawaii to the seas around Britain, we are soiling our own nest. It was a shock to realise how much British beaches have changed since I was a child playing on beautiful coastlines in Dorset and south Wales. Just like those in Hawaii, they are now covered in more litter than ever before