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Last week we reported on the happy news that the European Commission is planning to ban single-use plastic items such as straws, cutlery, and plates.

Considering that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now double the size of NSW, and growing rapidly this news cannot come quick enough.

Another sickening reminder of what we are doing to our planet came with the death of a whale in southern Thailand, who swallowed 80 plastic bags.

A five day rescue effort “to help stabilise its illness” ended on Friday after the mammal died. An autopsy found 8kgs of plastic bags in the whale’s stomach.

RELATED: Woolies and Coles are phasing out single-use plastic bags across Australia