Government says long-term harm from plastic pollution is unknown “because we haven’t looked hard enough”

The Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser has admitted that long-term harm from plastic pollution is unknown “because we haven’t looked hard enough.”

The comments were cited by the Environmental Audit Committee Sustainable Seas Report, which highlights that “major action” is needed to protect the oceans from waste.

It calls on the Government to bring forward the UK’s 2042 target date for achieving zero avoidable plastic waste and to rapidly decarbonise our economy to meet net-zero emissions by 2050.

The report found that plastic pollutions in oceans is set to treble in the next ten years, and that the Government’s “out of sight, out of mind” treatment of the oceans has been putting marine resources at great risk.

The committee recommended that the Government must act to drive efforts to protect our seas with a legally binding “Paris Agreement for the Sea”, as well as banning plastic packaging that is difficult or impossible to recycle, and introducing legally binding targets for water quality to reduce chemical pollutants from land.

Mary Creagh MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, said: “We have to stop treating our seas as a sewer. Plastics, chemicals and sewage are choking our oceans, polluting our water and harming every ocean species from plankton to polar bears.

“Supporting India and Malaysia to reduce plastic while simultaneously exporting our contaminated plastics to them shows the lack of a joined-up approach at the heart of the Government’s strategy.”