plastic waste

In the last 70 years the amount of plastic that Ireland produces has increased massively we produce nearly 300 million tons of plastic every year half of which is single use plastic. 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into our oceans every year. One of the main causes of plastic pollution is plastic litter most of which is caused by just dropping the plastic in our streets or people just dumping in our environment. This litter is transported by wind and rain into our drainage network which then transports the plastic into our rivers and oceans. In 2016 95% of Ireland's waste was transported to China but with a ban of China importation of plastic from EU countries in 2018 This means that Ireland now faces a major issue with what we are going to do with our plastic waste.  On average every Irish person generates 61kg of plastic waste each year that is 5,500 single use coffee cups this makes Ireland the largest producer of plastic waste in Europe. More than 60 percent of plastic waste still comes from packaging but only 40 percent of that packaging is recycled. The plastic that is ending up in the ocean is causing some serious issues for fishes the reason for this is that a lot of plastic can look like the fishes food so the fish can end up getting entangled in the plastic and for seals as they grow so fast the plastic can get very tight on them and cause death. Beach cleaning crews find fishing nets in 50% of their cleans.