Green Alliance is calling on the UK government to usher in a container return scheme in a bid to reduce marine pollution, according to a report published by The Guardian. Such a scheme would be the ‘single most effective action’, according to research conducted by the environmental thinktank.

According to Green Alliance, plastic bottles are responsible for 33 percent of plastic pollution, and a deposit scheme could cut this figure by 95 percent. Deposit schemes are currently run across Europe and in the US and Australia.  

Across the globe, a million plastic bottles are purchased every minute, with production expected to increase 20 percent by 2021. More than half the bottles bought in 2016 ended up in landfill or the sea.