A massive stash of manmade rubbish that has washed up on a remote island archipelago includes a whopping 373,000 toothbrushes – and 977,000 shoes.
Researchers from the University of Tasmania discovered the staggering haul on the beaches of the remote Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean, which are located 2,100 km off the northwest coast of Australia.
Among the 414 million individual pieces of rubbish was 238 tonnes of plastic –as well as the toothbrushes and shoes, there were a significant number of straws and plastic bags among the trash.
In a study published in the journal Nature, the researchers, led by Dr Jennifer Lavers, said the ocean had become like a “reservoir for exponentially increasing amounts of plastic waste” over the past 60 years.
They warned that unless there was meaningful change to tackle the pollution problem debris would continue to accumulate rapidly on the world’s beaches presenting “considerable challenges for wildlife.”
Co-author Dr Annett Finger from Victoria University said almost half of the plastic produced over the past 60 years was manufactured in the last 13 years.
“As a result of the growth in single-use consumer plastics, it’s estimated there are now 5.25 trillion pieces of ocean plastic debris.
“Plastic pollution is a well-documented threat to wildlife and its potential impact on humans is a growing area of medical research.
“The scale of the problem means cleaning up our oceans is currently not possible, and cleaning beaches once they are polluted with plastic is time consuming, costly, and needs to be regularly repeated as thousands of new pieces of plastic wash up each day,” Dr Finger said.
She added: “The only viable solution is to reduce plastic production and consumption while improving waste management to stop this material entering our oceans in the first place.”