Is plastic pollution really the problem or is it a distraction?
Adapted from an article by Martin Attrill Professor of Marine Ecology, University of Plymouth published in The Conversation 27/5/25
The flow of plastics into the ocean must certainly be stopped but Martin Attrill worries that the plastic pollution problem is a bandwagon that so many businesses, media outlets and governments have jumped on. Has a decade-long focus on “solving” the plastic crisis been a troublesome distraction? There has certainly been a great deal of attention given to it by the hairdressing industry with major brands supporting recycling programmes like Plastic Bank. And on the front line, individual salons and freelance hairdressers are queuing up to take action to reduce single use plastic. Banning single-use straws and refill schemes can seem like an easy win because leaders can be seen to be taking action when these actually do little to solve the ocean’s biggest problems.
This is because the big problem in the oceans is not plastic pollution, its fishing! The most complex and hard to resolve activities that seriously harm our seas, such as industrial overfishing, are still not being dealt with. The most damaging fishing practices such as trawling and dredging continue legally, astonishingly even within designated marine protected areas. Such highly damaging activities have no place near sensitive habitats.
And its not just biodiversity and fisheries that are damaged. It is also the capacity of the seas to absorb and retain CO2 that is essential in the battle against climate change. Oceans full of life (and not just the great whales) sequester far more carbon than marine dead zones with just a few small fish left in them. (e.g. the North Sea and the Irish Sea).
The recent UK ban on sand eel fishing gives some hope. This landmark decision was made to benefit nature (protecting food supply for seabirds), restricting a fishery that does not even supply food for humans. Sand eels are used to make fishmeal and fish oil to feed farmed fish and livestock. On the other hand the UK has, according to some, just betrayed small fishers and fisheries by agreeing to the EU fishing in UK waters for another 12 years. And EU fishing fleets love sand eels!
Damaging fishing practices such as trawling and dredging continue legally, even within designated marine protected areas. Such highly damaging activities have no place near sensitive habitats.
Martin Attrill has worked as a marine ecologist for 40 years. He firmly believes that the most effective and straightforward solution for the UK is to prohibit all towed fishing gear from within at least three miles of the coast – including developing a series of fully protected marine reserves.
In Lyme Bay, this approach has led to a real win-win because the seas are now recovering, and local fishers, holidaymakers and coastal communities are benefiting too. But having read this, please don’t stop your good work on plastics! That IS important. For more about what to do, check out our sustainable hairdressing tool kits. Get yours here.
Image by Nataliya Vaitkevich