Remote island in ecological emergency as plastic pollution continues to spread

A record amount of plastic waste was recently found in the body of a pallid shearwater, a seabird, on Australia’s Lord Howe Island. Scientists detected 778 pieces of plastic in the stomach of a chick, including bottle caps and pieces of cutlery, and the sound of plastic being rubbed together was clearly audible. The phenomenon stems from adult seabirds mistakenly feeding the algae-covered plastic fragments to their chicks as food, and the lack of regurgitation capacity in pale-footed fulmars has led to the continued accumulation of plastic in the body. The island serves as a breeding ground for tens of thousands of seabirds, and plastic pollution has threatened the survival of the entire population. Meanwhile, the Pasig River in the Philippines has become one of the world’s dirtiest rivers due to the accumulation of plastic waste, with 24% of the 61,000 tons of garbage generated every day consisting of plastics, making the living conditions of the residents along the river poor, and calling on the government to step up its waste management.