is at least worth exploring. paul clifton, bbc news, portsmith. now, we are used to hearing about how much plastic is blighting our oceans, but the extent of it continues to astound many of us, and we are learning more about which sectors produce most of that waste. in the biggest marine litter evaluation ever completed, scientists at the university of cadiz in spain analysed global inventories, cataloguing more than 12 million pieces of litter found in and around rivers, oceans, shorelines and the sea floor. they found eight out of ten items listed were made of plastic, and aa% of this plastic litter related to take—out food and drinks. but there is another, less often spoken about industry, with a huge plastic impact on our planet — the beauty industry. think shampoo and shower gel bottles, make—up packaging, bottles for creams. in 2018 it was revealed that more than 120 billion units of cosmetics packaging were produced globally, mostly non—recyclable. the national geographic found that for us—made products, plastic packaging is now used 120 times more than it was in 1960.