If you needed to see more evidence that plastic is polluting the environment, take a look at this almost pristine Fairy Liquid bottle. Talk about washing up.
The bottle was produced in 1971 but found its way on to Brean Beach in Burnham, Somerset during a storm, almost 50 years after it was made.
Burnham Coastguards posted a photo of the bottle, clearly showing the Fairy branding, on Thursday. Recent rough tides swept in a huge volume of marine debris over the past few days, including plastic.
The coastguard team also found shoes and other plastics on the shore.
In a Facebook post, they wrote: “If you watched the BBC One program Drowning In Plastic you will see what effects plastics are having on our entire world. What can we do about this modern day scourge? We can try and reduce our day to day plastic use, which is difficult with current manufacturing.”
They urged people to use rubbish bins to dispose of waste or to join beach cleans – such as Litter Free Coast & Sea Somerset and Rage Against Rubbish who remove “100s of bags of rubbish and 1000s of cotton buds every month that would’ve otherwise been washing around our waters for years to come,” the coastguards wrote.
“Small changes by everyone can make a big difference to our beautiful planet and even to our very own stretch of coast, so let’s make a difference together.”