The Dirty Dozen represented a staggering 80 well-known product brands, including food & drink, confectionery and alcohol brands, and this is from just what our volunteers found in the audit. The reality is that these global organisations are responsible for producing some of the largest numbers of plastic pollution globally. We’ve also mapped out the offending brands in our Dirty Dozen brand breakdown.

The #DirtyDozen continues to fuel the plastic pollution crisis and fill the Ocean and air with their carbon emissions.

Our findings yet again have highlighted the systemic problem the UK faces with plastic and packaging pollution. The root cause is the overproduction and overconsumption of non-essential, single use, throw away items, including virgin plastics made from crude oil.

Recent studies have found the production of one single-use 500mL plastic bottle can produce around 82.8 grams of carbon dioxide. This all adds up and Scientists estimate that the carbon footprint of plastic production is a significant factor in climate change. In 2015, plastics were accountable for 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, meaning that if plastics were a country, it would be the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.

Crude oil rigs are utilised to dig up crude oil needed for creating plastic and, as a result, have terrifying and far reaching consequences for the planet. Not only are they among the highest carbon emitters in Europe, CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere from extracting North Sea oil and gas reached 13.1 million metric tonnes in the UK in 2019, or 21 kg of carbon dioxide for every barrel of oil produced. Crude oil rigs also pollute the water with chemical byproducts and microplastics, disrupt marine mammals and tear up sea beds and impact precious marine ecosystems.

Our research found that the majority of packaging pollution is still coming from just a handful of the world’s largest companies. With their massive resources and influence, they have real power to positively change consumer behaviour to stamp out this excessive and often unnecessary production and pollution of plastic.

Yet, despite global brands’ use of virgin plastics reportedly being on track for a significant drop by 2025, are these brands, wider businesses and the government REALLY doing enough to reduce packaging, switch to reuse models and enable recycling?

In fact, we’ve seen no change at the top since we started our Brand Audits back in 2019.

To solve the plastic pollution crisis, we urgently need our governments to adopt policies that stop the production of unnecessary plastic products which threaten human health and the environment, in addition to perpetuating our throw away culture.

It is vital that we instead continue to build on a circular economy that ensures plastics are designed to be reused, repaired and then effectively recycled in truly circular systems.  We can start by adopting a UK wide Deposit Return System as soon as possible that stops plastic, aluminium and glass getting into our precious natural spaces. Deposit Return Systems have been proven to work around the globe, and there is no need for further delay.

In May this year, 180 nations came together in Paris to continue negotiations on a global plan to tackle plastic pollution in the form of a Global Plastics Treaty. As plastic pollution invades every part of the globe this treaty is a huge opportunity to tackle this globally important issue.

But in order for the treaty to be effective it must be fundamentally targeted at reducing plastic production at source and stopping the unsustainable production of new carbon intensive virgin plastics. This key global treaty against plastic pollution could start to take effect as early as 2025 and for us, it can’t come soon enough.

Discarded and abandoned fishing gear (also known as ghost gear) items collected in this year’s brand audit have more than doubled in one year.

With an estimated 640,000 tonnes of lost or discarded gear entering our oceans each year, this remains a key threat to the health of the oceans, waves, beaches and wildlife. As this material is often lost or discarded at sea, it can be assumed that much of this material will remain within the ocean rather than being washed up onto beaches.

Latest research shows that the majority of floating plastic pollution stems from fishing activities on behalf of industrialised fishing nations, highlighting the important role the fishing industry plays in the solution to this global issue.

The Environment Agency just last year released guidance setting out how UK port and harbour managers can protect marine life by responsibly managing resources and waste. The Interreg Preventing Plastic Pollution is a partnership of 18 organisations in England and France who work together and fund educational material aiming to reduce the impact of plastic pollution in river and marine environments and encourage cultural change in both local communities, and businesses, whilst identifying real solutions.