Author asks why his book called ‘No. More. Plastic’ was wrapped in plastic Cornwall-based Martin Dorey said the world is ‘sleepwalking into oblivion’

An author has called the distribution of his new book about reducing the use of plastic an “absolute shambles” after he found it had been wrapped in plastic.

‘Everything has to change if we are to avoid fucking it up for good. We have to reassess everything. Your reusable mug will not be enough to save the world’ Martin Dorey The i newsletter latest news and analysis Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

Martin Dorey, from Bude, Cornwall, condemned the decision by a US distributor to cover No. More. Plastic, a book that looks to raise awareness of misuse and its damaging effects on the environment, in shrink wrap.

“It is beyond irony,” he said to i. “It’s tragic, laughable, and it highlights people’s stupidity.”

The writer and campaigner first commented about the fiasco on Instagram, where he said: “So here’s my book. We toiled hard on this. We worked with the printer to make it one of the UK’s most environmentally [friendly] books this year.

‘Absolute shambles’

“And then this. It’s an absolute shambles, undoes all our hard work and proves, once again, that we are using plastic with our eyes closed. We are sleepwalking into oblivion.”

Mr Dorey founded the 2 Minute Beach Clean initiative in 2009, which encourages people to take two minutes out of their day to pick up litter from British beaches.

The world is facing a plastic pollution crisis. Marine life and other animals are seeing their lives put in danger and habits destroyed due to pollution.

The author added: “The point is that this book is about no more plastic and some idiot shrink-wrapped it in plastic without thinking.

“Everything has to change if we are to avoid fucking it up for good. We have to reassess everything. Your reusable mug will not be enough to save the world.”

‘We have to reassess everything’

Both Mr Dorey and publishers Penguin both highlighted the fact the Christmas period is a time during which plastic is often used and wasted irresponsibly.

Penguin said it has been contacting distributors of the book in the US to stop plastic being used. No. More. Plastic is, after all, educational.

Mr Dorey said to i he and the publishers have yet to track down who is chose to use plastic. He said it was a third party somewhere along the supply chain, and said he understands customers don’t like books to have been thumbed or used.

A spokesman for the publisher said: “We worked very hard to ensure our book was environmentally friendly at every stage of the book process.

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“This photo highlights brilliantly the over-use of plastic in our everyday lives and I hope the small positive is that this image might make people stop and think, as we head into a busy Christmas period of shopping and wrapping.”

‘Kind of insane’

In a news segment by Channel 5, Mr Dorey said the whole thing was “kind of insane”. He said his book is shipped without plastic, but has been sealed by re-sellers.

“I’ve been to a book shop in the UK,” he explained, “and I saw a woman wrapping the books in plastic. I said, ‘why are you doing that?’ and she said, ‘it’s because our customers don’t want books that look like they’ve been thumbed’.”