Author: jonesjb

I suspect that not very far in the future, we will think of plastic as the new asbestos. We have known for a long time that plastic takes hundreds of thousands of years to break down, but only recently we have understood how bad that is. Plastic only breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces; it does not actually ever go away. We now see that microplastics are present almost everywhere, including in our own bodies. Plastics accumulate in the food that we eat, moving up the food chain until it reaches its highest concentration in our bodies and, most concerningly, in mothers’ breast milk. When microplastics get very small, they are referred to as nanoplastics. They are so small that they can cross cellular membranes and actually work their way into our individual cells. We are currently clueless about what that means for our health and the environment.

This is not just about chemicals that we should not drink going in; that is only a tiny part of the picture. The River Thames floods with human sewage multiple times a week and also has some of the highest recorded levels of microplastics in the world. It is long overdue for the Government to get a grip on water pollution.

Sewage and water companies make a lot of money and they should be clearing up their own mess. If they cannot take on these contracts, they should not take them on. When it comes to cost, we should look at the businesses that make money out of our rivers and our sewage, and we should make them pay. Continue reading “Environment Bill: Water pollution amendment” →