The European Parliament has told its lawmakers and staff to set an example for EU citizens by no longer drinking water from plastic bottles by next year.

The European Parliament bureau headed by Antonio Tajani and 14 vice presidents adopted a measure late Monday to phase out the plastic bottles and build a network of drinking fountains.

"Happy to announce that the EP bureau has decided to get rid of all plastic bottles and minimise single use plastic altogether at the parliament from July 2019," tweeted Heidi Hautala, an EP vice president, on Tuesday.

"Phase out already under way! EP will lead by example!," added Hautala, a Finnish ecologist.

The move comes amid broader European Union and international efforts to stop eight million tonnes of plastic waste polluting the world's oceans annually.

One million bottles were consumed last year during events and meetings in the EP which gathers in the French city of Strasbourg and also in Brussels.

The European Commission, the 28-nation EU's executive arm, last month proposed a bloc-wide ban on single-use plastics such as straws, cutlery and cotton buds.

The commission hopes the measure will be endorsed by the European Parliament and the member states before its mandate ends in 2019, though it will unlikely enter into force before 2022.

The commission also proposed that member countries collect 90 percent of single-use plastic drinks bottles by 2025, through deposit refund schemes.

Thai turtle's plastic-filled stomach highlights ocean crisis
Bangkok (AFP) June 11, 2018 - Startling images of plastic shreds, rubber bands and other debris found jammed in the stomach of a green turtle in Thailand have highlighted the crisis of waste-strewn seas following the widely publicised death of a whale this month.

Thailand is one of the world's largest consumers of plastic, which kills hundreds of marine mammals and reptiles swimming off its coasts every year.

The problem grabbed public attention in the first week of June when an autopsy of a dead pilot whale found near the border with Malaysia revealed 80 plastic bags inside its stomach.

The green turtle, a protected species, suffered a similar fate after washing up on a beach in the eastern province of Chanthaburi on June 4, Weerapong Laovechprasit, a veterinarian at the Eastern Marine and Coastal Resource Research and Development Centre, told AFP.

Plastic, rubber bands, pieces of balloon and other rubbish had filled the turtle's intestinal tract, leaving it unable to eat and causing its death two days later.

"It was feeling weak and couldn't swim," Weerapong said. "The main cause of death is the sea trash."

Veterinarians discovered the blockage using X-rays and tried to save the turtle by feeding it intravenously, but were only able to extract the garbage after its death.

Weerapong said that in the past about 10 percent of the green turtles stranded on beaches in the area had ingested plastic or suffered infections after coming into contact with the waste, but this year about 50 percent of the incidents were trash-related.

More than half of the eight million tonnes of plastic waste dumped into the world's oceans every year comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, according to a 2015 Ocean Conservancy report.

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Recycling plastic -- Japan style
Tokyo (AFP) June 5, 2018
At a recycling plant outside Tokyo, workers in face masks pick through an unending torrent of plastic rubbish, fuelled by a national obsession with pristine packaging - and famously strict rules that ensure much of it is reclaimed and reused. Some 10 tonnes of recyclable plastics are brought in every day to be processed at the Ichikawa Kankyo Engineering centre, where workers hover over conveyor belts removing any stray items or contaminants. The plastic is then compressed and squeezed into hug ... read more