Rivers & Canals

Canals run through nearly every major city in Europe and generally are connected by rivers that lead to the ocean.

Plastic waste left on the ground, park or road flows into these systems directly when rain and wind sweeps debris into them, we find an increased amount of plastic after storms and monsoons specifically.

Fishing Boats

Fishing boats regularly loose nets, buoys and floats into the ocean and have no way to recover them, these nets then become (Ghost Nets) and float around our oceans for hundreds of years killing whales, turtles and countless marine species.

Human behaviour

Humans throwing waste directly onto the beach and into the ocean. This happens globally every year and is more common in countries that do not have correct waste disposal systems or recycling facilities available.

Drains and Sewage Outlets

Storm drains and overflow systems around the world are continually flushing plastic into the open ocean. Every time the sewage systems overflow countless plastic pieces flushes directly in the ocean, also millions of plastic particles of polyester clothing goes into the air and ocean through your washer and dryer systems.

Reduce and Reuse

When we visit the shops, why not take a reusable non plastic bag, such a net bag or organic cotton tote bag.

Also think of other items that don’t come in plastic packaging, the internet is full of wonderful alternatives.

Join a UOcean Chapter

We operate clean ups in most cities and beaches around the UK, we would love you to join us by signing up on the volunteering page.

Recycle

Have a look at the back of the packaging and find out if it’s recyclable? if it is, you know what to do with it. Recycle it.

Find Alternatives

With shampoo bars now coming in plastic free packaging, to organic non polyester clothes, cereals, you can refill at your local supermarket, the world is full of great non plastic items, even down to a simple refillable water bottle.

Let’s stop buying more plastic and find alternatives.

Whales, Fishes and Sea Bird

The most visible impacts of marine plastics are the ingestion, entanglement and suffocation of lots of marine species. These include species such as seabirds, whales, fishes and turtles, they mistake plastic waste for prey, and most die of starvation as their stomachs are filled with plastic debris and cannot process food..

Green House gases

The study examined the seven most common types of plastic - polycarbonate (PC), acrylic (AC), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE). Each type of plastic was measured after being submerged in seawater and exposed to the sun for several days. The type of plastic shown to release the most methane and ethylene was LDPE. LDPE, which is used to make grocery bags among other things, is one of the most commonly produced, consumed, and discarded types of plastic, and also one of the lightest, shown to float at the surface of the ocean.

Coral reefs

A new study based on four years of diving on 159 reefs in the Pacific shows that reefs in four countries — Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar — are heavily contaminated with plastic. It clings to the coral, especially branching coral. And where it clings, it sickens or kills.

"The likelihood of disease increases from 4 percent to 89 percent when corals are in contact with plastic," researchers report in the journal Science.

Toxic microplastics

It is very difficult to accurately estimate the total amount of micro-plastic particles in the environment, as they can be hard to detect and their sources and movement are not well understood.

In the UK, a recent sample of the river Mersey near Liverpool found that there was an average of 84,030 particles of micro-plastics in each square metre of water. People are likely to consume micro-plastics, as they have been detected in a wide range of food and drink products, including bottled and tap water, table salt, sugar, and seafood.