United Nations, Oct 13 (UNI) Saturday marked the World Migratory Bird Day which, this year, raising awareness about the serious threats that plastic pollution poses to bird life, with a call for urgent measures to end the problem.
These include getting caught up in fishing gear and other plastic debris; confusing plastic waste with food and eating it, which fills their stomachs and causes them to starve; and using debris as material for nest-building, which can harm their chicks.
One-third of global plastic production is non-recyclable and at least eight million tons of plastic flows unabated into our oceans and water bodies each year,” said Joyce Msuya, acting Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). “It is ending up in the stomachs of birds, fish, plankton, and in our soil and water. The world is choking on plastic and so too are our birds, on which so much life on Earth depends."