Thursday 21 December 2017

Environmental issues- the forefront of the fight

This week Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Life Opportunities Therese Coffey officially signed into law a ban on the use of microbeads in the UK which will come into force on 9th January. Microbeads are tiny manufactured plastic particles that are used in products such as exfoliators and toothpastes, and every day millions of microbeads wash into our rivers and seas. They are often eaten by sea life which is incredibly harmful as fish, sea birds and other sea life cannot digest microbeads. This ban on microbeads is one of the strongest in the world and is part of plans by the Environment Secretary to reduce our plastic waste that is polluting our oceans.

I am so pleased that this ban on microbeads will soon be a part of UK law, and I welcome this sign from the government that the UK is leading the way on protecting our sea life.