On a recent visit to Chagford in Devon, Alison was lucky enough to catch a talk by Dr  Ceri Lewis  of the University of Exeter . Dr Lewis is a senior lecturer in  marine biology and has been working on the impact of microplastics for ten years. She is part of the team which received the 2018  NERC Science of the Environment Social Impact Award.

Her talk was a sobering realisation that micro-plastics have entered even the smallest organisms in the marine environment.

Dr. Lewis suggested a new set of ‘re’ words to instil different behaviours in our consumption patterns. Not just of plastics, but our whole lifestyles need to change.

These words are:

Rethink   Refuse   Reduce  Reuse   Recycle

Recycling is at the bottom of the pyramid, an action of last resort, rather than a first response, an easy way to salve our conscious; that we are doing something positive for the environment. We need to challenge  ourselves to be out of our comfort zone and  commit to different and more sustainable ways to live in the world we share.