A recent study estimated that nine in 10 of the worlds seabirds have pieces of plastic in their guts.

The southern hemisphere, around New Zealand and Australia, is particularly badly affected because of major polluters such as Indonesia and Thailand.

Some albatross and shearwater have been found to have nearly 3,000 pieces of plastic - up to 8 kg - in their stomachs, the equivalent of a human eating 12 pizzas worth of food. It cant be digested, so the birds eventually die through lack of nutrition.

In countries such as Tuvalu, where plastic wastewashes up by the ton onto shores, locals suspect links with fertility problems.

Professor Susan Jobling of Brunel University discovered that most plastics contain hormone-disrupting chemicals. Some 92 per cent of adults in Western countries have plastic and chemicals from plastic production in their systems, and their children have twice as much.

"I hope it will make people really think about how they use plastics and make them wonder, for example, if they really need a plastic drinking straw or a single-use plastic bottle, said Prof Jobling.

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Our seas have become a plastic graveyard - but can technology turn the tide? - Telegraph.co.uk