But David knew this was a growing problem. After his PhD, he spent time in Australia volunteering for a charity which was trying to tackle plastic pollution and so witnessed the problem first-hand.

Fast forward almost two decades, and plastic pollution was finally on the agenda for politicians and consumers, in part thanks to David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II, which had revealed the scale of the problem.

“There was a big upswell in attention around plastic pollution, and it reignited my interest. I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to go back to where I had worked in Australia and the South Pacific islands? To understand the progress that had been made and also what was being done in comparison to the UK?”

Learning through travels

David, who works in marine management, was awarded his Churchill Fellowship in 2018, and travelled to Australia, New Zealand, and various South Pacific islands.

In Australia, governed via a partly devolved state system, he found efforts to recycle were being hampered.

“For example, they had introduced a plastic deposit return scheme, but it wasn’t uniform across the country. For the environment and strategies to prevent pollution, it was clear the best way would be to have a harmonious system.”

In the Pacific islands, David witnessed the impact on nations too small to introduce their own recycling systems, so vast amounts of plastic were being shipped to China.

“They didn’t have the means or infrastructure to do their own recycling, so I could see the effect on communities and coastal places.”

But there were many positives to the trip. David was invited to share his knowledge, so took up a number of speaking opportunities, such as at Tonga National University.

“Clearly the plastic pollution situation was worse than it had been on my previous visits, but what was encouraging was the momentum that was building, and this was very positive.”