Bottles and cans are an element in litter and this is a big issue for people in Birmingham. It is unsightly and costs a lot to pick it all up. According to a report by the ‘Recycle Now’ campaign, 16 million plastic bottles go unrecycled in the UK every day. Plastic, metal and glass does not rot or breakdown, but makes instead it makes its way into the soil, the rivers and the seas.
At least 8 million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year. That’s similar to emptying a garbage truck of plastic into an ocean every minute. This is very harmful to marine life and ecosystems. One million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed annually from plastic in our oceans.
If marine mammals or seabirds eat plastic it is then introduced into the food chain which causes problems for us humans (those of us who eat fish!). At the bottom of the food chain, very small fish eats plastic. Then larger fish eat lots of small fish who have all eaten plastic. All the toxins from the plastic the small fishes ate then accumulates inside the larger fish. The larger fish then works its way up the food chain and is consumed by humans.
