Plastics in 99% of seabirds by 2050

Researchers from CSIRO and Imperial College London have assessed how widespread the threat of plastic is for the world’s seabirds, including albatrosses, shearwaters and penguins, and found the majority of seabird species have plastic in their gut.

• In 1960, plastic was found in the stomach of less than 5 per cent of individual seabirds, rising to 80 per cent by 2010
• Plastic ingestion will affect 99 per cent of the world’s seabird species by 2050, based on current trends
• 90 per cent of all seabirds alive today have eaten plastic of some kind