Our plastic ocean: infinite waste in boundless seas – in pictures

WE MUSt AcT NOW – Smartie Lids: the lids from tubes of Smarties that were recovered from beaches around the UK. Such images show how plastic continues to float unseen underwater for decades without biodegrading

Soup – Burnt: plastic objects recovered in the sea that have been partially burned. In some cases, the objects have been washed ashore and were then burned, and in others, the objects were incinerated on land and then thrown into the sea

Soup – Turtle: on 10 January 1992, 12 40ft shipping containers on their way from Hong Kong to Washington spilled 28,000 children’s bath toys into the North Pacific during a storm. Here are the plastic turtles that have floated in the sea ever since; there are also plastic ducks, frogs and beavers from the incident

Soup – Refused: plastic objects, such as a toothpaste tube, that has been altered by the chewing and attempted ingestion by animals. All these objects were recovered along the shoreline of a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. Some objects have bite marks from the goats that tried to eat them, and their missing teeth

Soup – Where … Am I Going?: plastic balloons recovered from oceans around the world, with labels including Silver Wedding, Now I am Three, Thomas the Tank Engine, It’s A Girl, Happy Birthday and Happy Retirement. More than 90% of balloons rise to an altitude of five miles before bursting into small fragments. The rest stay inflated and drift down to end up in the sea, where ribbons and strings can lead to entanglement

Soup – 500+: more than 500 pieces of plastic debris found in the digestive tract of a dead Albatross chick in the north Pacific gyre. Unlike other images in the Soup series, this compact arrangement of the debris reflects its accumulation in the creature to convey how it might look and feel

Shoal: a trawl of debris recovered from the north Pacific Ocean, including a child’s toy gun found on the tsunami shoreline, with the imprint ‘made in Japan’. These items were recovered from the debris field of the 2011 Japanese tsunami and photographed at various points between Japan and Hawaii. Objects and particles are duplicated in the image to represent both the scale of lives lost and the amount of plastic that entered the Pacific Ocean as a result of the disaster

Penalty: 769 plastic footballs collected from 41 countries and islands around the world, from 144 different beaches and by 89 members of the public in just four months. The image was inspired by the 2014 World Cup. Penalty has a double meaning, suggesting we will all pay a price for continued pollution of the ocean

Shoal: this image from the series shows a duplicated plastic figure, one of many children’s toys, including Mickey Mouse, Shrek and Hello Kitty, found from the tsunami shoreline of the north Pacific Ocean after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011

Hong Kong Soup 1826: recovered action heroes and transformers show how toys are not disposed of properly. This series features items collected from 30 different beaches in Hong Kong since 2012, and the images reflect the traditions and culture of people there

Hong Kong Soup 1826 – Spilt: on 23 July 2012, a cargo container spilled 150 tonnes of pre-production plastic pellets (nurdles) during Typhoon Vicente, adding to the plastic debris that escapes landfill in Hong Kong every day

Hong Kong Soup 1826 – Zongzi: miniature plastic imitation sticky rice packages found in the sea. Traditionally, these are made from bamboo leaves and thrown into the water as part of the Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Soup 1826 – Poon Choi: 10 objects of municipal waste reflect Hong Kong’s traditional 10-layered new year’s dish, Poon Choi. The items collected from 10 different beaches include a child’s sandal, shop mannequin hand, race duck, ribbon, spectacle frame, toy dinosaur, fishing float, shipping tag, a pocket game and toy boat

Hong Kong Soup 1826 – Lotus Garden: this collection features different species of discarded artificial plastic flowers that would never flower at the same time in nature and do not belong in the ocean. It includes lotus flowers, leaves and petals, a rose, holly, ferns and ivy leaves

Every … Snowflake is Different: white marine plastic debris collected in two visits to a coastal nature reserve. The snow flurry includes single-use, industrial, and hazardous plastics. In nature no two snowflakes are exactly the same and these recovered objects with different manmade structures are a metaphor for the snowflake

Photographic artist Mandy Barker recovering plastic on the west coast of Scotland. Working with scientists, Barker hopes to raise awareness of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans and its harmful impact on marine life