A bin designed to protect the Thames’ sea creatures from single-use plastic bottles has been installed outside Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the South Bank.
The GreenSeas Trust bin is expected to collect 60,000 recyclable plastic bottles annually.
The “unmissable design” aims to “pique curiosity” and prompt people to consider how “ditching single-use plastics” impacts marine wildlife.
Fazilette Khan, Founder and Trustee of GreenSeas Trust, said: “The River Thames has some of the highest recorded levels of microplastics of any river in the world.
“The unmissable design of the BinForGreenSeas effectively utilises the ‘nudge effect.’ A visual, friendly tap on the shoulder to pique curiosity and get people to stop and think.”
This is the trust’s seventeenth such bin and its third in London.
GreenSeas Trust is funded with a grant from City Bridge Trust – the City of London Corporation’s charity funder – and is in partnership with Southwark Council.
Cllr Rachel Bentley said: “This iconic location by Shakespeare’s Globe attracts millions of visitors from all over the world, and we trust that this bin will be a big, bold and unmissable symbol of the importance of stopping marine plastic pollution.
“I’m so pleased to have been able to support the Green Seas Trust in their vital environmental work in Southwark and beyond.”
Paul Martinelli, Deputy Chairman of the City Bridge Trust, said: “Plastic pollution in our waterways and oceans is an issue which affects the whole world, but one which all of us can take steps in our day-to-day life to tackle.”