I've always envied David Attenborough - he has my dream job, travelling the world, seeing all the wonders of nature and getting paid for it as well. Now he is raising awareness of the plastic scourge which threatens to spoil it all for everyone - huge floating islands of the stuff out in the Pacific - and people are starting to sit up and take notice. To be honest, it's not just in the ocean - plastic is littering our roadsides, too. It's also in our water and in our bodies...

Plastic is really useful, but it's the single-use stuff which we should be learning to do without - the stirrer in your cocktail, the plastic toy in your cracker, the straw in your drink...it's a long list.

It's difficult to buy anything from a supermarket without accruing a pile of packaging. My friend Pam met me after work today and showed me these produce bags she'd bought while visiting her daughter in New Zealand. They're made from recycled bottles. She was about to take them on a trip to Morrisons for fruit and veg. 

Even Michael Gove and Prince Charles are getting on the anti-plastic bandwagon, and moves are afoot to put a deposit on plastic bottles, but if you don't want to wait for the government to do more about the problem, here are 100 ways to reduce your plastic use. 

I still love my lock-and-lock boxes though :-)