Greenpeace study finds plastic present in 13 of 13 UK rivers tested

A Greenpeace study testing 13 UK rivers has found plastic pollution present in all of them.

The study used a manta net to collect surface water samples across the 13 rivers, with each location tested a minimum of two times before the samples were sent for analysis in Exeter.

A total of 1,271 pieces of plastic, ranging in size from straw and bottle top fragments to microbeads, were found across the study.

The study also found that the River Mersey was the most polluted, and was proportionally more polluted than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, containing equivalent to two million pieces of microplastic per square km.

Five of the 13 rivers contained microbeads, which were partially banned in 2017, and more than half the rivers contained nurdles.