31/01/2018 Newsround

Good morning - I'm Ricky.

First today, you'll probably

have heard about the big

question of the moment -

how can we cut the amount of plastic

we use and throw away?

More than eight million tonnes

of plastic ends up in the world's

oceans each year.

That's a truckload every minute!

So, what's the problem with plastic?

Martin's been finding out...

These are trash islands in the

Caribbean. It looks like a stretch

of land but it's floating rubbish

like plastic bags, spoons and

bottles. They are created by

currents in the ocean. Sadly, this

is not the only place in the world

where plastic pollution is a

problem.

Plastic is all around the

planet on every shoreline, it's even

down to The Deep ocean, places we

have never visited, we go there for

the first time and our rubbish has

beaten us there.

Back in the day,

milk and fizzy drinks used to be

bought in glass bottles and food

would be wrapped in paper. Now,

plastic is lots of things we use

every day and it is really useful.

300 million tonnes are produced each

year, but 40% of that is. We will

only use once before it's thrown

away, like straws, crisp packets,

bottles and carrier bags. How

bottles and carrier bags. How does

plastic end up in the ocean?

Some of

it is blown in, lots of it comes

from rivers, some can come a long

way, some from ships at sea, Summers

left by tourists on beaches. Some

enters by the toilet. There's a

whole range of ways it can get

there, the problem is once it's

there that is where it will stay.

Scientists are warning that within

the next 30 years the amount of

plastic in our oceans could outweigh

the fish. Each year, 100,000 animals

in the sea are killed by plastic. It

can hurt on track them and it they

can also mistake it for food. One in

three sea turtles and 90% of sea

birds have eaten it. It ends up on

our dinner table, are we eating

plastic as well?

We recently looked

at fish collected locally, of 500

fish we found a third had small

quantities of plastic in their gut.

It's not a cause for concern for

eating their special, the quantities

are quite small, unless we do

something about it the quantities

fish, birds and will increase.

There

are lots of groups trying to help

tackle plastic pollution and the

government is promising to do more.

But there are ways we can all help

right now. Here are Richard's top

tips. Make sure you always throw

your rubbish in the bin. If you

don't need something, don't use it.

And of course, the cycle when you

can.

If you want to know more about how

plastic affects our planet head over

to Newsround online where we've got

a full guide.

Next, are teen romances

bad for your grades?

Well, that's what one headteacher

in North Wales thinks,

so much so that he wrote

to his pupils telling

them to avoid them.

Well, let's hear what some

Year 10s think ...

I don't think teachers should be

allowed to tell you what you want to

do because it's your private life

and you should be able to do what

you want.

If you have a boyfriend or

girlfriend, you won't be able to

think straight, but you could be the

same about friends or family

problems.

Situations where people

are not revising or doing the work.

MIB on everyone else's mind whether

you will break up so that would

cause a lot of drama between not

just the people involved in the

relationship but everybody around

them.

It affects their graves

personally, then that could be fair

enough, but to say it to a whole

group of people when you don't know

if it's affecting them or not, I

think it's on fire.

What you do in

your free time is up to you, if you

choose to revise and do the studying

menu will get the best grades, it's

up to you what you choose to do.

We've been asking for your views

on this one and loads

of you have been voting

on the Newsround website.

Join us right here at

8.15 for the results.

Finally - move over,

Wall-E , there are some

new cleaning droids in town.

These four dirt-busting bots

were put through their paces

at a train station in Germany.

They raced against each other

as part of a contest to choose

a new cleaning machine to keep

the German stations spick and span.

I think this guy needs

to get a wriggle on!

That's all for now.

We're back at 8.15 with those big

school romance vote results.

Don't miss it.