Banning water bottles is not the answer to marine litter, said the British Plastics Federation (BPF, London / UK; www.bpf.co.uk) responding to the move by major UK store Selfridges (London; www.selfridges.com) to stop selling single-use plastic bottles, totalling about 400,000 per year. The association said it was dismayed at Selfridges' “misguided attempt” to tackle the issue, adding that “plastic products do not litter themselves onto our streets or into our oceans.”

The BPF’s director general, Philip Law, commented: “During 2014, nearly 60% of PET plastic bottles in the household waste stream were collected for recycling. The only way we can truly tackle littering is not by indiscriminately banning products but through ongoing behavioural change programmes.”

A spokesperson for the UK’s Natural Hydration Council (London; www.naturalhydrationcouncil.org.uk), added: “Bottled water represents approximately 18% of the packaged soft drinks market and has the lowest environmental impact of all soft drinks.”
According to Selfridges, 13 bn plastic water bottles are used each year in the UK but only 23% is recycled with 10 bn bottles going to landfill or the ocean. It said that almost 400m t/y of plastic is produced worldwide and only about 10% is recycled, with 8m t/y being dumped into the sea. The retailer forecasts that in the next decade, oceans could hold 1kg of plastic for every 3kg of fish.

The store has replaced the plastic bottles with a new glass-bottled range and reusable water vessels.