Letters: September 2017

It is true that plastic waste is a chronic environmental problem and, as stated by Mark Peplow in his article (Chemistry World, July 2017, p15) ‘it is a shocking testament to our ability to despoil the planet’. But, I take issue with the use of ‘our’ in Mark’s statement. Not in my name, please! It was a major omission that he failed to mention how each of us can choose whether to support this environmentally harmful system of waste; not just packaging and plastic cups but also buying garments made from synthetic fibres. How many of us knew that June was the Marine Conservation Society’s plastic challenge month?