Last year, researchers exploring the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean - the deepest point anywhere in the world’s seas, 11,000m below sea level - found it to be heavily polluted with microplastics.
Significant traces were found in the stomachs of creatures living there. If plastics have reached one of the most remote parts on the planet, then we can be sure they have permeated all parts of our environment, around the world, and here in Wales.
The evidence of our plastics crisis is everywhere. It's in the scattered debris lying on beaches the length of our coastline. It's on the banks of our rivers, and in the habitats of the diverse wildlife that make their homes in our waterways. It's in the waste that we leave out for our councils to collect each month, and in the conflicts about how often it should be collected.
It's in our all-too-often laissez-faire approach to recycling, and the uncomfortable frequency of stories about how recyclable waste going astray . It's on the shelves of our supermarkets, and in the mindblowing quantity of surplus packaging we all plough through each week in the course of feeding ourselves and our families.
This isn't something we can ignore because it's far away or on a nature documentary. This is a global issue, and a local one. A future problem, and a current one. And the only way we fix it is by all taking responsibility for how we use plastic, how we dispose of plastic, and how we take action for the damage we've already done.
The damage that's already been done
Oceans play a big part in the life of people in Wales as the country’s marine area is larger than its land. Over 60% of the population here live and work on the coast, and coastal and marine businesses contribute over £6.8bn to the Welsh economy.
Between 2015 and 2018, RSPCA Cymru recorded 331 incidents about animals involved with litter in Wales - almost a third of which involved plastic.
Plastic-related incidents reported to the RSPCA increased by almost 30% between 2015 and 2018 - rising from 21 to 27 - despite the overall number of calls about litter falling significantly.
In one case from 2018, a duck found with a plastic ring stuck around his head and beak had to be put to sleep.v
Between 2008 and 2018, Keep Wales Tidy cleared 16,395 tonnes of waste – equal to 3,643,333 bags of litter.
Volunteers taking part in the Marine Conservation Society's Great British Beach Clean last September found plastic littering occurring at a rate of 528 items every 100 metres across 42 beaches in Wales.
While the number of pieces of litter was down 22% on the previous year, the upward trend is resolutely up.
Beach and River Clean Project Officer Lizzie Prior warned: "Litter levels fluctuate year on year and for the last 25 years the trend has, and continues to be, steadily rising."
The most common items found by the 1,300 volunteers who took part in September's beach cleans were plastic or polystyrene.
Of all the rubbish found, 28.6% could be identified as ending up on beaches because of people, 12% from fishing, 6% from things people had flushed down the toilet.
But plastics damage is not limited to our beaches and waterways. It can just as easily be found high on the nation's tallest peaks.
Litter being left behind by Snowdon's 500,000 visitors every year means there is a growing litter problem at the heart of Wales's largest national park.
The Snowdonia Society is one of the groups holding litter picks across the area.
In June last year, 250 bottles and 20 bags of rubbish were found at Glaslyn lake. Less than a year later, another 207 bottles were recovered.
As part of a 3 Peaks Litter pick challenge, 11 bags of litter, 24 plastic bottles, two “disposable” barbecues and 12 biodegradable coffee cups were collected from Snowdon's Llanberis Path.
And even when we're doing what we think is right, there are issues. Plastic packaging from a Welsh council was found in a Malaysian jungle. It's now being sent back, but it raises serious questions about the efficiency
Rivers are no different.
In an 11 year project, 1,117 volunteers linked to the Wye and Usk Foundation cleared more than 1,100 miles of river bank.
In that period, they collected 4,171 sacks of litter and other items, of which 61% were agricultural in origin.
There are 500 volunteers on the Cardiff Rivers Group membership list. They not only clear blockages, and manage habitats, but tackle litter and waste on paths and remove rubbish from rivers, streams and ponds.
In March, researchers from Bangor University and Friends of the Earth found microplastic pollution in some of Britain’s most iconic and remote rivers and lakes.
The sites they tested included the Afon Cegin river in Gwynedd and Llyn Cefni reservoir on Anglesey.
Dr Christian Dunn, from Bangor University, led the study
“It was more than a little startling to discover microplastics were present in even the most remote sites we tested, and quite depressing they were there in some of our country’s most iconic locations," he said.
"We have to start taking the issue of plastic in our inland waters seriously.
“Plastic is polluting our rivers, lakes and wetlands in a similar way as pollutants such as so-called ‘emerging contaminants’ like pharmaceutical waste, personal care products and pesticides.
“As with all emerging contaminants we don’t yet fully know the dangers they present to wildlife and ecosystems, or even human health, and to what levels they occur in all our water systems.
“But it’s now clear that microplastics should be considered a serious emerging contaminant and there needs to be a concerted effort to regularly monitor all our inland waters for them."
Microplastics - pieces of plastic debris under five millimetres - have also been found in concerning quantities in the bodies of insects in Welsh rivers. Researchers from Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences found fragments at every single site studied, and in 50% of all the insects they examined.
This first UK study of microplastics in river insects investigated three different kinds of mayfly and caddis larvae and found that all contained plastic material irrespective of their feeding methods.
PhD student Fred Windsor, who took part in the research, said: "In our study, we sampled insects upstream and downstream from sewage treatment works on the River Taff, River Usk and the River Wye, and found plastics were surprisingly widespread."
Across the country, in our seas and rivers, mountains and valleys, town and cities, plastic is being more and more embedded in our habitats and our ways of life. It's time for a change.
