Plastic pollution: Flip-flop tide engulfs 'paradise' island

[New World Explorer]

Close to a million plastic shoes, mainly flip flops are among the torrent of debris washed up on an "unspoilt paradise" in the Indian Ocean.

Scientists estimated that the beaches of Australia's Cocos (Keeling) Islands are strewn with around 414 million pieces of plastic pollution.

They believe some 93% of it lies buried under the sand, say the researchers.

They are concerned that the scale of concealed plastic debris is being underestimated worldwide.

Nearly half the plastic manufactured since the product was developed six decades ago has been made in the past 13 years, say scientists.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48272920