The UN has called for a ban on single-use thin plastic shopping bags in a new UN report on marine litter.
The report, entitled 'Marine Litter: A Global Challenge' claims that plastic is the most pervasive form of pollution in the oceans.
The UN head of the Environment Programme Achim Steiner said that the single-use plastic bags should be banned or phased out rapidly everywhere as they choke the marine life.
"There is simply zero justification for manufacturing them any more, anywhere," he said.
The proposed ban on the use of plastic bags has raised a debate across the US with the plastic-bag industry arguing that users who throw them out are responsible for creating problems with marine life.
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