• Question: Which rubbish causes the most pollution?

    Asked by imaperson to Nicolas on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Nicolas Biber

      Nicolas Biber answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hey imaperson. Did you already ask this question in the live chat? I was probably not able to give you a very comprehensive answer about that there. It really depends where you’re looking and how you’re looking. The Marine Conservation Society (http://www.mcsuk.org) gives really good reports about what they find around the UK. It seems that small pieces of hard plastic are the most abundant. Expanded polystyrene which I have found to be the most abundant in my own survey only scores rank six. The MCS also tries to source the rubbish they find, and it seems that the largest proportion is rubbish dropped by people on the beach or inland. If you want to know more about it, I recommend you have a look at their website. NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States) also has a marine debris programme: http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/. It’s worth having a look! If you have any further questions, just ask me 🙂

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