* UK expert to speak at CSU in Albury-Wodonga * Plastic in the environment a huge and growing problem, with plastic ingestion by marine wildlife lethal * Plastic rapidly accumulating in the most remote regions of the worldDr Maggie Watson, lecturer in ornithology and seabird researcher in the CSU School of Environment Sciences and researcher in the Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS) is hosting a seminar by a leading international expert.Dr Watson announced that Dr Alex Bond (pictured left), Senior Curator in Charge of Birds at the Natural History Museum in London will present a seminar at 3pm Wednesday 5 December at the School of Environmental Sciences at CSU in Albury-Wodonga.The seminar is titled ‘Trash talk: The story of the shearwater and the bottle cap’.Dr Watson explained that plastics are a long-lasting and increasingly problematic man-made problem in the environment which is injuring and killing increasing numbers of wildlife.“There are an estimated five trillion pieces of plastic floating on and in the world’s oceans,” Dr Watson said.“Increasingly, plastic that has broken down into very small pieces – microplastics − are contaminating the food chain.“Plastic is extremely durable in the environment, but the very qualities that make plastics desirable materials for manufacturing have dire consequences for the environment, and each year more than 8 million items end up in the world’s oceans.“Once there, these plastics act as sponges to absorb hydrophobic contaminants from the surrounding water, and are then often ingested by marine animals.“Over the last decade, Dr Bond’s research has demonstrated the severity of the problem for some of the most affected species, the consequences of plastic ingestion for marine wildlife, and the rapid accumulation of plastic in the most remote regions of the world.”