Millions of customers are being urged to boycott food and drink in plastic packaging for 24 hours on Tuesday, as the war against plastic pollution inspired by BBC documentary Blue Planet II gathers momentum.

Each year more than 300 million tons of plastic are produced globally, and 10 per cent will end up in the sea. It is estimated that there is now a 1:2 ratio of plastic to plankton and, left unchecked, plastic will outweigh fish by 2050.

Marine animals cannot digest it and it has been shown that even humans who eat seafood ingest 11,000 pieces of microplastic each year. More than eight tonnes of plastic enters the sea each year, mostly from land, but most plastic are not bio-degradable and not all plastic can be recycled.

In what is billed as a global first, campaign group A Plastic Planet, supported by organisations in Europe, Asia and the Americas such as TimeOut, Spotify and Sky Ocean Rescue, is hoping to inspire 250 million people around the world to stop using plastic-packaged products to mark World Environment Day on Tuesday.

Campaigners said they also hoped international companies would make pledges to cut their plastic footprint.