Luke covers lifestyle for Verdict. You can reach him at luke.christou@verdict.co.uk

Plastic waste in the oceans will treble in the next decade, according to a new report conducted by the UK’s Government Office for Science.

Given the extent of the problem, it is hard to say just how much plastic has ended up in our waters.

However, the report predicts a three-fold increase between 2015 and 2025. The study’s higher estimate suggests that waste could rise from less than 100 million metric tonnes in 2015 to almost 250 million metric tonnes in 2025.

According to Greenpeace, an additional 12.7 million metric tonnes of plastic finds its way into our oceans each year.

The report also looks at potential opportunities to grow the “ocean economy”, which it predicts will double to $3 trillion by 2030 thanks to new technology.

More than 500,000 people in the UK work in industries connected to the sea. This adds more than £47 billion to the economy annually.

However, the UK must look for alternative ways, aside from oil and gas, fishing and shipping, to profit from the ocean or face missing out on rising revenues.

What was said:

Professor Edward Hill from the UK National Oceanography Centre, one of the authors of the study, told the BBC:

The ocean is critical to our economic future. Nine billion people will be looking to the ocean for more food. Yet we know so little of what’s down there. We invest a lot of money and enthusiasm for missions to space, but there’s nothing living out there. The sea bed is teeming with life. We really need a mission to planet ocean – it’s the last frontier.

According to the study:

Understanding, and more importantly maintaining the state of our oceans, is of great importance.

A spokesperson from the Ocean Cleanup, a foundation focused on riding the oceans of plastic waste, previously told Verdict:

According to the group, plastic waste in the oceans pose a physical threat to marine life, which can get entangled in the waste or ingest it.

Likewise, there it can also transport harmful pollutants to remote areas of the ocean, meaning the problem could be further reaching than it might seem.

Plastic waste in our waters can also have economic effects on the fishing, shipping and tourism industries.

Plastic production has been climbing since the 1950s and previous studies have estimated that as much as 10% of that ends up in the ocean.

Much of this plastic is unaccounted for. However, a recent study found plastics in bottled water. As much as 90% of water bottled by popular brands contains traces of microplastics. </s> It identified the rise of plastic in oceans, along with rising temperatures and sea levels and chemical pollution, as some of the biggest problems the marine environment faces.

The report found that 70% of marine litter is non-degradable plastic which is projected to increase threefold between 2015 and 2025.

Experts suggested the government needed to be more strategic in its approach to the sea in order to successfully halt some of the long-term pollution issues.

"The major response is likely to lie in preventing it from entering the sea, introducing new biodegradable plastics, and potentially public awareness campaigns about marine protection," the report said. The UK economy relies heavily on oceans with 95% of trade traveling by sea. The report also suggested that the UK had opportunities to capitalize on the "ocean economy" (sea-based industries), which it says could double in size by 2030 to $3 trillion. "Both the opportunities and the challenges set out in this important report are global in scale and demand our urgent attention," Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister Tariq Ahmad said in a statement accompanying the report."We must keep pushing our scientific understanding of the oceans, harness new technologies, and support commercial innovation." Professor Ed Hill, Executive Director of the National Oceanography Centre, said in a statement that the report showed more research was required to understand the effect plastic pollution is having on marine organisms. "There is still more work to be done to achieve greater knowledge of the marine environment and the impacts of climate change. This will be critical for making a success of the future that this report anticipates," he said. The issue of plastic pollution has become a notorious environmental subject over the last several years as researchers and activists have revealed it accumulating in areas of the sea and along once pristine coastlines. Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary on January 2 in Cliffe, England. Related: How our throwaway culture is turning the sea into a graveyard Plastic has been found to choke marine wildlife, and has also entered the ocean food chain -- exposing marine life to toxic chemicals that can end up in the food on our plates. Around 150 million tons of plastic are already floating in our oceans -- with an additional eight million tons entering the water each year, according to the World Economic Forum . It is estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by weight if current rates of plastic dumping hold. In December, the UK was one of 193 countries that signed a UN resolution to eliminate plastic pollution in the sea. A month later the UK introduced what it described as one of the world's toughest bans on microbeads, outlawing the manufacture of products containing the harmful plastic particles </s> The amount of waste plastic in the oceans could treble in the next 10 years unless urgent action is taken to curb the problem, a report has warned. It’s estimated that a frankly staggering 12 million tonnes of plastic rubbish is dumped into the oceans every single year.

Plastic waste, along with global warming and industrial pollution present the largest dangers to our oceans warns the Foresight Future of the Sea Report for the Government. The scientists behind the report warned of the danger of the oceans being “out of sight, out of mind”, with more known about the surface of Mars and the Moon than the deep sea bed.

Professor Ed Hill, executive director of the National Oceanography Centre, said it was time to change the attitude of what goes on below the surface as “out of sight, out of mind” and have more of a “Mission to Planet Ocean” approach. He said: “When people get to see what is in the ocean, and the Blue Planet series and so on have helped people to visualise it, and then I think their reaction is twofold, one is complete wonder at what is there, and in other cases complete horror at what we’re potentially doing to it. “It’s this sense of the unexplored world on our own planet, but also it’s important to us, we know less about the bottom of the sea than the moon or Mars, but nothing lives on the moon or Mars, but things live in our ocean and they’re vitally important to us.” Plastic pollution, which is set to treble between 2015 and 2025 without intervention, has a physical presence in the oceans, and can accumulate on the coasts or in particular areas of the sea. The spread of plastic pollution in our oceans has gotten so bad that in September last year scientists actually found lumps of polystyrene near the North Pole.

The ocean and its health is hugely important to the UK, with 95% of the country’s international trade travelling by sea, the internet carried by subsea cables, and oceans storing carbon dioxide and heat and producing oxygen and food. But there are also opportunities for the UK to cash in the global “ocean economy” – which is set to double to 3 trillion US dollars (£2 trillion) by 2030 – in areas where the country is a world leader, such as offshore wind.

There are major opportunities for robotics, artificial intelligence and automated technology to fill gaps in understanding of the oceans and how best to manage them, the experts said. For example, the submarine Boaty McBoatface has recently completed an unmanned mission under Antarctica’s ice shelf to assess whether the ice is melting from below due to warmer seas. Satellite technology can prevent illegal fishing and autonomous underwater sensors can check if carbon dioxide is escaping from subsea carbon storage facilities. </s> Image copyright SPL

The amount of plastic in the ocean is set to triple in a decade unless litter is curbed, a major report has warned.

Plastics is just one issue facing the world's seas, along with rising sea levels, warming oceans, and pollution, it says.

But the Foresight Future of the Sea Report for the UK government said there are also opportunities to cash in on the "ocean economy".

They say this is predicted to double to $3 trillion (£2 trillion) by 2030.

The report says much more knowledge is needed about the ocean. The authors say the world needs a Mission to "Planet Ocean" to mirror the excitement of voyaging to the moon and Mars.

The Foresight reports are written by experts to brief ministers on medium and long-term issues of significance. This one has been signed off by ministers from four different departments as the authors emphasise the need for a joined-up oceans policy.

One of the authors, Prof Edward Hill from the UK National Oceanography Centre told BBC News: "The ocean is critical to our economic future. Nine billion people will be looking to the ocean for more food. Yet we know so little of what's down there.

"We invest a lot of money and enthusiasm for missions to space - but there's nothing living out there. The sea bed is teeming with life. We really need a mission to planet ocean - it's the last frontier."

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The report projects an increase in the industrial capture of fish

Another of the authors, the chief scientist for the UK government's environment department Ian Boyd, agreed: "The ocean is out of sight, out of mind," he said.

He told BBC News: "There's a continuous process of exploring for new things to exploit in the oceans, and that's happening faster than we scientists can keep up with. My suspicion is legislation is also struggling to keep up - and obviously there are risks in that."

He said offshore wind farms, oil industries and mining firms were spreading into unexplored areas. "Scientists need to get in there faster than the commercial people or at least at the same time - to put proper regulation in place to govern those industries."

The report highlights many concerns, including the current worry about ocean plastic litter, which it forecasts will treble between 2015 and 2025.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A giant build-up of plastic was captured by underwater photographer Caroline Power

But it stresses that the ocean is being assailed from many different types of pollution - including run-off pesticides and fertilisers from farms, industrial toxins like PCBs, and pharmaceuticals.

The authors say if governments can identify ways of protecting biodiversity in the seas, there are riches to be harvested - including nodules of metals and possibly even cures for cancer.

They predict that the biggest industrial growth in the seas will come from offshore wind, followed by marine aquaculture and fish processing. The report also projects an increase in industrial capture of wild fish.

This latter suggestion alarmed Rachel Jones, a marine expert from London Zoo, ZSL. She told BBC News: "Given that 90% of global fisheries are either at or in excess of sustainable catch levels, I can't really see how they are going to expand capture fisheries."

Follow Roger on Twitter. </s> The amount of plastic in the oceans is expected to triple in just ten years, a government report warns today.

This key environmental problem risks being ‘out of sight, out of mind’ with more known about the surface of Mars and the Moon than the deep sea bed, it added.

The toll of plastic pollution in the sea could be 150million tonnes by 2025 – treble the 50million tonnes estimated in 2015.

The alert comes days after a Daily Mail investigation revealed how microplastics are contaminating the food we eat and the air we breathe. Fish fillet samples from eight shops showed worrying levels of the tiny particles. The research, which continues a decade of campaigning against plastic, prompted calls for action from the United Nations, ministers and health campaigners.

Scientists behind today’s report said the oceans are vital to Britain as 95 per cent of the UK’s international trade travels by water, while the internet is connected by underwater cables. Our oceans also store carbon dioxide and heat while producing oxygen and food, the Foresight Future of the Sea Report stressed.

It also examined opportunities for Britain offered by the global maritime economy. The value of this is set to double to £2trillion by 2030 in areas where the UK is a world leader, such as offshore wind power.

On the growing blight of plastic pollution, the document warned this will leave a physical presence, accumulating on coasts or in particular areas of ocean.

Professor Ian Boyd, chief scientific adviser for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said scientists have only just begun to examine the toxic effects of plastic breaking down and ending up inside marine organisms.

He added: ‘Even in the absence of research, there is a precautionary principle to take here. We should minimise the amount of plastic, both macro-plastic and micro-plastic, going into the marine environment in order to make sure that if there are toxic effects, those are being dealt with.’

The report also warned plastic litter on coasts can increase the risk of dangerous bacteria in the water, such as E.coli.

It said efforts to reduce plastic pollution should focus on stopping it entering the sea, developing new biodegradable materials and public awareness campaigns.

Professor Ed Hill, executive director of the National Oceanography Centre, said it was time to stop thinking of what goes on below the surface as ‘out of sight, out of mind’ and have more of a ‘Mission to Planet Ocean’ approach. He added: ‘When people see what is in the ocean, and the Blue Planet series and so on have helped, their reaction is twofold – wonder at what is there and horror at what we’re potentially doing to it.

‘We know less about the bottom of the sea than the Moon or Mars but nothing lives on the Moon or Mars ... things live in our ocean and they’re vital to us.’

Pointing to the potential of oceans, the report said they could provide new medicines, minerals and energy. There are also opportunities for robotics, artificial intelligence and automated technology to improve understanding of the oceans and how best to manage them, it added. </s> The amount of plastic ending up in the ocean is set to treble in a decade without action to curb the problem, a major report has warned.

Plastics is one of a number of environmental issues facing the world's seas, along with rising sea levels and warming oceans, and metal and chemical pollution, the Foresight Future of the Sea Report for the Government said.

But there are also opportunities for the UK to cash in the global "ocean economy" - which is set to double to 3 trillion US dollars (£2 trillion) by 2030 - in areas where the country is a world leader, such as offshore wind.

The scientists behind the report warned of the danger of the oceans being "out of sight, out of mind", with more known about the surface of Mars and the Moon than the deep sea bed.

But it is hugely important to the UK, with 95% of the country's international trade travelling by sea, the internet carried by subsea cables, and oceans storing carbon dioxide and heat and producing oxygen and food.

There are major opportunities for robotics, artificial intelligence and automated technology to fill gaps in understanding of the oceans and how best to manage them, the experts said.

For example, the submarine Boaty McBoatface has recently completed an unmanned mission under Antarctica's ice shelf to assess whether the ice is melting from below due to warmer seas.

Satellite technology can prevent illegal fishing and autonomous underwater sensors can check if carbon dioxide is escaping from subsea carbon storage facilities.

Work is also beginning on the impacts of plastic in the ocean, as experts are not sure what threats it poses, Professor Ian Boyd, chief scientific adviser for the Environment Department said.

Plastic pollution, which is set to treble between 2015 and 2025 without intervention, has a physical presence in the oceans, and can accumulate on the coasts or in particular areas of the sea. </s> The amount of plastic ending up in the ocean is set to treble in a decade without action to curb the problem, a major report has warned.

Plastics is one of a number of environmental issues facing the world’s seas, along with rising sea levels and warming oceans, and metal and chemical pollution, the Foresight Future of the Sea Report for the Government said.

But there are also opportunities for the UK to cash in the global “ocean economy” – which is set to double to 3 trillion US dollars (£2 trillion) by 2030 – in areas where the country is a world leader, such as offshore wind.

The scientists behind the report warned of the danger of the oceans being “out of sight, out of mind”, with more known about the surface of Mars and the Moon than the deep sea bed.

But it is hugely important to the UK, with 95% of the country’s international trade travelling by sea, the internet carried by subsea cables, and oceans storing carbon dioxide and heat and producing oxygen and food.

There are major opportunities for robotics, artificial intelligence and automated technology to fill gaps in understanding of the oceans and how best to manage them, the experts said.

For example, the submarine Boaty McBoatface has recently completed an unmanned mission under Antarctica’s ice shelf to assess whether the ice is melting from below due to warmer seas.

Satellite technology can prevent illegal fishing and autonomous underwater sensors can check if carbon dioxide is escaping from subsea carbon storage facilities.

Work is also beginning on the impacts of plastic in the ocean, as experts are not sure what threats it poses, Professor Ian Boyd, chief scientific adviser for the Environment Department said.

Plastic pollution, which is set to treble between 2015 and 2025 without intervention, has a physical presence in the oceans, and can accumulate on the coasts or in particular areas of the sea.

But the toxic effects when they break down and end up inside marine organisms are not clear, he said.

But he added: “Even in absence of research, there is a precautionary principle to take here, which is we should minimise the amount of plastic, both macro-plastic and micro-plastic, going into the marine environment, in order to make sure that if there are toxic effects, those are being dealt with.”

Efforts to reduce plastic pollution should focus on preventing it entering the sea, introducing new biodegradable plastics and public awareness campaigns about marine protection.

Professor Ed Hill, executive director of the National Oceanography Centre, said it was time to change the attitude of what goes on below the surface as “out of sight, out of mind” and have more of a “Mission to Planet Ocean” approach.

He said: “When people get to see what is in the ocean, and the Blue Planet series and so on have helped people to visualise it, and then I think their reaction is twofold, one is complete wonder at what is there, and in other cases complete horror at what we’re potentially doing to it.

“It’s this sense of the unexplored world on our own planet, but also it’s important to us, we know less about the bottom of the sea than the moon or Mars, but nothing lives on the moon or Mars, but things live in our ocean and they’re vitally important to us.”

The oceans could provide new medicines, minerals and energy, he said.

The report said international collaboration and long-term planning was needed to protect the environment and enable the UK to make the most of the maritime economy. </s> More than 10 years and one week ago this newspaper published my first Our Ocean Backyard column. The topic was salmon. My friend, Gary Griggs of the Institute of Marine Sciences, agreed to alternate writing duties with me every other week, and off we went. When we started we discussed whether there would be enough information to sustain the column but today, there are topics, for good and for bad, to keep us in a sea of words for years.

I wrote last time about the growing problem of plastic pollution, which was highlighted at the 6th annual International Marine Debris Conference in San Diego, sponsored by the United Nations and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and attended by more than 700 people from countries around the globe.

The movement to research and stem plastic pollution has grown since Charles Moore, a Long Beach resident, first discovered it while returning from Hawaii to Southern California on his boat in 1997.

At the time there was discussion of two large “garbage patches” floating in the Pacific, but the reality was more like a plastic soup, with plastic breaking down through a process known as photo degradation where sun, wind and moving salt water break it down to smaller pieces that retain their synthetic polymer structure for many years, doing damage over that time.

Today there is a plastic pollution problem in the great gyres of the world ocean, 80 percent of the trash found there came from land.

In 2014, a global study lead by the 5 Gyres Institute found estimated that there are 5.25 trillion pieces, or nearly 269,000 tons, of plastic in the ocean. There are also concerns that they are ingested by marine life, thereby carrying toxins that can concentrate as they move through the food web.

Much of the research presented at the international marine debris conference last month highlighted the trend that plastics are getting smaller and more ubiquitous throughout the marine environment from the ocean surface, through the water column, on the sea floor and in wildlife.

One conference abstract, on the chemistry of plastic marine debris, said: “When (it) enter(s) the environment, plastic undergoes physical, chemical and biological weathering which decreases its size via fragmentation and alters its original shape, chemical composition and surface characteristics.” Another, on the effects of small plastic particles on fish and invertebrates, said: “Microplastic pollution has been identified in habitats and animals, in both freshwater and marine ecosystems, from all over the world.”

Tiny, sometimes microscopic, pieces of plastic would be difficult, and expensive, to remove from the marine environment without also capturing large amounts of by-catch. Activists who are fighting the problem world-wide have focused on eliminating single-use plastic, such as bags, straws, disposable coffee cup lids, plastic utensils and other products which can be carried by water or wind to the ocean after often less than a day of service.

Another effective tactic is intervention to remove debris before it reaches the ocean by conducting beach cleanups. Worldwide more than 500,000 volunteers removed 16 million pounds of trash in 91 counties on a September day in 2014. While cleansing the ocean of plastic debris is becoming an increasingly unlikely proposition, eliminating the input of plastic into the marine environment is a feasible, and desirable, enterprise.

Dan Haifley is executive director of O’Neill Sea Odyssey. He can be reached at dhaifley@oneillseaodyssey.org. </s> Image copyright Getty Images

Nations responsible for much of the world's ocean plastic pollution have promised to start cleaning up their act.

At a UN oceans summit, delegates from China, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines said they would work to keep plastics out of the seas.

Some of the promises are not yet formalised and environmentalists say the measures proposed are not nearly urgent enough.

But UN officials praised the statement.

Meeting in New York, they said it was part of a clear international shift against ocean pollution.

Eric Solheim, the UN's environment director, told BBC News: "There are quite encouraging signs, with nations taking the ocean much more seriously. Of course, there is a very long way to go because the problems are huge."

It is estimated that 5-13 million tonnes of plastics flow into the world's oceans annually. Much of it is ingested by birds and fish – and fragments of plastic have even been found in organisms at the bottom of the ocean.

A recent paper said much of the marine plastic often originates far from the sea – especially in countries which have developed consumer economies faster than their ability to manage waste.

The Helmholtz Centre in Leipzig, Germany, estimated that 75% of land-borne marine pollution comes from just 10 rivers, predominantly in Asia.

Reducing the plastic loads in these rivers by 50% would reduce global plastic inputs by 37%, it said.

'Change in attitude'

Tom Dillon from the Pew Charitable Trusts, which campaign on oceans, urged China to move quickly.

He told BBC News: "For thousands of years the Maritime Silk Road was a pathway for export of Chinese culture and influence. Will the ocean be a vehicle for export of Chinese pollution, or a new culture of conservation and sustainability?"

A report to the UN conference from the Thailand government says most marine plastic debris is land-based, caused by inefficient waste management and poor handling of plastic wastes.

In Thailand, the total amount of garbage finding its way into the sea was estimated at 2.83 million tonnes in 2016 - of which 12% was plastic.

The Thai government says the nation has established a 20-year strategy to tackle the problem, including developing financial incentives for keeping plastic out of the sea and encouraging eco-packaging design and eco-friendly substitutes for plastics.

In Indonesia, the government is starting a mass education programme for schoolchildren, and in the Philippines new laws are being developed.

Part of the challenge is finding substitutes for plastics. An international prize for smarter materials and design for packaging was launched recently by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Follow Roger on Twitter @rharrabin </s> Researchers at The Ocean Cleanup—a Dutch foundation developing new technologies for ridding the oceans of plastic—say rivers carry an estimated 1.15-2.41 million tonnes of plastic into the sea every year, an amount that need between 48,000 to over 100,000 dump trucks to carry it away.

Their latest study, published in Nature Communications journal Wednesday, added that two-thirds of the pollution comes from the 20 most polluting rivers, the overwhelming majority in Asia with the Yangtze River in China topping the list.

The Yangtze, the world's third-longest river, "is the largest contributing catchment", dumping some 330,000 tonnes of plastic into the East China Sea.

This is followed by the Ganges River in India and a combination of the Xi, Dong and Zhujiang Rivers in China as well as four Indonesian rivers: the Brantas, Solo, Serayu and Progo.

The rest of the world shared the remaining 14 percent of plastic pollution via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup researchers said.

"Most of this river plastic input is coming from Asia, which emphasises the need to focus on monitoring and mitigation efforts in Asian countries with rapid economic development and poor waste management," they said.

The researchers however issued a disclaimer saying "there is very little data to document these assumptions and thoroughly verify the validity of our model."

"Yet, the relatively high concentrations of ocean plastic found at the surface of the North Pacific Ocean where buoyant plastics originating from Asia can accumulate, suggest that our assumptions are plausible," they said.

The study comes against the backdrop of the UN's first ocean conference opening in Miami on Monday, where plastic pollution was singled out as particularly harmful.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres cited a recent study that showed plastic could outweigh fish in 2050 if nothing is done.

Every year, more than eight million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean, costing at least $8 billion (7.1 billion euros) in damage to marine ecosystems and killing an estimated one million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals and untold numbers of fish.

Explore further: Plastic pollution builds up in Arctic waters: study

More information: Laurent C. M. Lebreton et al. River plastic emissions to the world's oceans, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15611
A study commissioned by the UK government concludes marine plastic debris may treble within ten years, and predicts the "ocean economy" will double to US$3 trillion (£2 trillion) by 2030.