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'We really do need to change our attitude to plastic'

Bournemouth seafront <i>(Image: Stephen Bath)</i>
Bournemouth seafront (Image: Stephen Bath)

THE last few days of rough waves have dredged up a disastrous omen on our beaches.

If you go down to the beach today, you will see millions of small, rounded plastic pellets along the many miles of our shoreline.

All of them created from the plastic littering our seas – killing fish, seabirds and marine animals. We all know about the dangers of plastic in the sea, but the past few days have really brought it home to me about the state of our oceans.

Seeing so many plastic pellets along our beautiful beach made me feel sick to my stomach.

It’s just a tiny snapshot of the disaster going on in the water.

The pellets, also known as ‘nurdles’ are pre-production plastic pellets and are the building block for all our plastic products.

They are believed to have come from shipping containers lost in the Atlantic Ocean and will break down into smaller particles and be ingested by fish and shellfish, and eventually by us.

We really do need to change our attitude to plastic and to put pressure on the retailers and organisations that create and use plastic so wilfully.

JO O’CONNELL

Horsa Road, Southbourne