Tesco -- the UK’s biggest supermarket chain -- and Nestle, the world’s largest food company, have announced they have joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) to help address the more than 640,000 metric tons of fishing gear, also called ‘ghost gear’, ending up in the oceans every year.
The GGGI, founded in 2015, is the only global alliance of its kind, dedicated to tackling the problem of ghost fishing gear at a global scale. Ghost gear represents 10% of all marine debris and as much as 70% of all floating macro-plastics (larger than 5mm). The GGGI is announcing a raft of commitments to protect marine animals from ghost gear on Oct. 30:
"The equivalent of 52,000 London double-decker buses, or 65 Eiffel towers, of ghost gear, is left in the oceans each year," the project claims. "An estimated 5-30% of the decline in some fish stocks can be attributed to ‘ghost gear'." The GGGI now has 91-member organisations globally, including Lidl, who joined the alliance in September, and other UK food retailers J. Sainsbury, Wm Morrison Supermarkets, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose.
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