Rattled by public disgust at the sight of choked animals and soiled coastlines, the packaging industry was forced to respond. Food and drink firms including Unilever, Mars, Danone, Pepsico and Coca-Cola pledged to reduce the amount of virgin plastic they used by 2025 and to increase the amount of recycled plastic. Together they are responsible for more than 20% of all the plastic packaging produced. Senegal is choking on plastic waste, with tens of thousands of tons of it ending up in the ocean every year. The Ocean Cleanup project launched the Interceptor, a barge-like vessel theoretically able to harvest up to 100,000kg of plastic waste a day from heavily polluted rivers.

Source: The Guardian January 02, 2020 12:45 UTC