I'm sure you've seen for yourself just how much litter there is on the streets and in our rivers and oceans today. A lot of this is plastic waste—over eight million metric tonnes is produced every year worldwide. This is much more than well-meaning individuals can clean up by themselves, so what's being done to tackle this issue? Many businesses have voluntarily changed their practices in recent years to limit the amount of plastic packaging that they use. You may have seen that some restaurants are now refusing to supply customers with straws or other single-use plastic items, for example. Laws are also being changed to address the problem. Cosmetics companies are now banned from using tiny pieces of plastic called microbeads in their products and, in some countries, plastic shopping bags can no longer be given out for free, in order to discourage their use. But one of the more effective methods being used in some countries to encourage plastic recycling is something called a deposit scheme: people are paid a small amount for returning empty bottles and containers. Where this kind of refund programme has been trialled, the average amount of plastic waste ending up in the local waterways has been reduced by 40 per cent. No one solution is going to completely solve the global problem of plastic pollution, but a combination of changes to business practice, consumer mindset and national laws will make an important difference.