Be fantastic – use less plastic!

Humans have flooded the planet with plastic, and now we’re seeing its dangerous effects. Let’s send plastic packing from our oceans.

The problems with plastic

Many plastics contain artificial chemicals that may damage humans’ and other animals’ health. Since plastic’s everywhere, these chemicals end up everywhere too.

Animals don’t recognise plastic rubbish. Turtles can choke on plastic bags – probably thinking they’re yummy jellyfish. Sometimes seabirds, like albatrosses, think they’ve found a nutritious meal for growing chicks, and feed bits of plastic to their babies. And around the world, dead whales, dolphins, and birds have been found with stomachs full of plastic rubbish

Sea animals get tangled and trapped in plastic. A tangled animal can’t move to find food, or escape predators, and will probably die.

Most plastics don’t rot. Even if they break into smaller pieces, they’re in the environment forever. And because of rain, and all the drains that pipe water into the sea, lots of plastic rubbish ends up in our oceans.

Take action!

Recycling and reusing plastic is vital, but the very best thing you can do is use as little plastic as possible in the first place. That’s not easy, though. Plastic is everywhere.

The most urgent thing we all need to do is reduce ‘single-use’ plastic. That’s the stuff we use once or twice – or for storing one thing for a short time – then get rid of. For example: straws; plastic supermarket bags; cling wrap; juice and fizzy bottles; individually wrapped packets of snacks; disposable sushi boxes; shampoo bottles; and so on.

Help us spread the word that we need to keep our oceans pollution free! Colour in this poster and display it at your school or in your local library or community centre.

Adapted from an article by Johanna Knox, with thanks to Emma Cronin. Poster design and illustration by Giselle Clarkson.