It’s international plastic bag-free day on 3rd July. Plastic was hailed as a miracle material when it was first invented in New York under the name ‘Bakelite’ back in 1907. Now we know better. It’s a menace. According to National Geographic only 9% of plastic is recycled. Which means a whopping 91% isn’t, and clogs up our world, endangering lives and habitats as it stubbornly refuses to break down. 12 billion tons of plastic wastes are expected to be found in the natural environment by 2050.
Conservation Without Borders exciting new project The Flight of the Osprey (#FOTO) is going to follow Ospreys from the UK down along their migration route to their winter home in west Africa in order to highlight conservation issues they face on the way. One of those hazards is plastic pollution.
From http://www.plasticbagfreeday.org/: “Plastic pollution is a global catastrophe and sadly it is a man-made one. Did you know that approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used on a global scale? Just think about how many of these bags will end up littered all over the planet. This is having an extremely detrimental effect on the environment, wildlife and indeed human health. The marine ecosystem in particular is suffering immensely as a result of plastic pollution. 31 species of marine mammals are known to have ingested marine plastic whilst over 100 species of sea birds have ingested plastic artefacts. Over 250 species have become entangled in plastic, whilst entanglement rates of approximately eight percent have been discovered in some sea lion and seal species.”
In a recent study, while microplastics were significantly more abundant per gram in the gastrointestinal tract tissue of other raptors who consume small mammals, snakes, and amphibians, than Ospreys, plastic was present, and assumed to have been ingested from the fish on which they feed exclusively.
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Posted On: 04/07/2022