Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The very serious threat that litter poses to marine life
Regular readers of this site will be aware of my unceasing wailing (or so it might seem to many) on the subject of litter. From being compared to Kirsty Allsopp (aargh) to suggestions that fulminating against littering puts me up there with various well-known dictators, I've had my fair share of bouquets and brickbats on the topic.
Still I plough on, moaning about littering on here, on Twitter, on Flickr and picking up my fair share of it too.
Although many people may see litter as mainly an aesthetic problem, it's now becoming clear from research by the Natural History Museum and the University of London, that our plastic waste is making its way into our storm drains and, ultimately, into the sea.
You can read the science here but the conclusion that all those plastics swishing about on the streets and into the drains have to go somewhere and that somewhere seems to be into the digestive tracts of marine life is a very worrying one.
Article: Plastic waste in the Thames will devastate marine life, report warns
Tags for Forum Posts: litter
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Do please plough on, Liz.
You seem one of the few local people who understands social media and how to use it to raise issues like this in a thoughtful, informed way in a forum which isn't an echo chamber of the like-minded. Also without ranting or dumbing down; nor making party points; nor for self-serving claims for yourself or a particular organisation.
This Guardian article focuses on the River Thames and how stuff is then washed into the oceans. But clearly there are implications for local watercourses - including the River Lee. As a local councillor I wanted to read the full article and found that the final version is not yet published but will be in a journal called Marine Pollution Bulletin. Looking for it, I saw references to several articles on the same general theme of "microplastics in the marine environment". Plainly a far more serious pollution problem than I realised.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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