At a recent beach clean, SAS (Surfers against Sewage) volunteers uncovered several plastic litter and packaging items at Saunton Sands, North Devon, which reportedly included 1968 and 1967 Wonder Crisp packets, and 1990 Snickers Bar wrapper.
The marine environment has had the time to recover from the ecological disaster of the 1967 Torrey Canyon, but would take much more efforts to recover from the current level of debris.
The SAS is suggesting beach-goers to take plastics home for recycle and to pick up extra pieces of debris when visiting the beach.
Packaging from everyday items such as drinks and snacks can cause a long-lasting and devastating impact to the coastal environment, and the levels of marine debris are on the rise.
About 100m tons of post-production plastics have now entered the marine environment, equaling 5% of all the plastics produced till date.
