The plastic menace

Here is an elderly lady on a beach. What is she doing? Is she trying to get a tan? Hardly. Is she collecting shells? No. But she might have been doing that 40 years ago.

No she is taking samples of sand in order to assess the quantity of micro plastics it contains. These have been washed up in the tide.
Most are called nurdles. These are tiny plastic balls used by manufacturers to make plastic products.

I think you might be surprised at what is here on this rural village beach on Morecambe Bay. We are far away from any manufacturing area.

Please look at the extra. This shows the plastic content of a single sample of sand from this beach which filled the bulb planter used by a friend of ours.
Of course this is ingested by the wildlife in the ocean and as it goes through the food chain may end up on your dinner plate. I am grateful to my friend for the photograph and for his efforts to spread awareness of this worldwide problem.

And I am sorry if this depresses you. Blipfoto generally brings us pleasure and joy and there may be some who think I should not be using it in this way. But in my experience Blippers are responsible people who care about the world.