A walk along the beach is a favourite way to connect with nature and, ideally, offers the opportunity to escape the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. Unfortunately, most of us lucky enough to have access to the coast are conscious of the remains of that everyday life being dragged ashore with each tide, and one particular kind often stands out: the white snow of broken-up polystyrene.
Foamed polystyrene (or styrofoam) is one of the most common components of marine litter found floating at sea or washed up along coastlines. Not just a popular choice for many kinds of packaging and insulation on land, polystyrene also has a variety of maritime use in ports, marinas, aquaculture, fisheries, and leisure activities. But foamed polystyrene never fully biodegrades, and can be a serious threat to ocean life as it crumbles into thousands of puffed fragments in the marine environment.
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