Friends of Horsey Seals responded to a call reporting that a seal was entangled with a shopping bag on Winterton beach. When the rescue team arrived, they managed to catch the young seal and found the handle of the plastic bag was stuck around its neck. They were able to cut the handle, remove the bag and thankfully because the seal was not injured, set it free again.
On closer examination, the rescuers discovered that the bag, with a Carrefour logo on it, had originated from Belgium. It was a bag for life, made from recycled materials such as discarded fishing nets and ropes recovered from the sea and it had been produced in cooperation with the Seaqual Initiative, an environmentally friendly company that up-cycles plastic marine waste and turns it into other useful items. Carrefour operates more than 12000 stores in more than 30 countries and is the eighth largest retailer in the world.
But plastic is plastic and there is always a risk that it can end up in the sea again, as happened in this case. We feel it is a shame that Carrefour hasn’t committed to using something more biodegradable to safeguard marine wildlife.
