Stills

There was a time, say 60 years ago, when this might have been a glass bottle and it would have been taken home and put on the mantlepiece after being carefully inspected for a message inside. Now it's hard to find a spot, let alone take a photo without plastic appearing in it. Around us, if it isn't litter being ditched it is the black plastic from farmers' silage bags or pits shredding itself and eventually waving in an ugly fashion from willow branches in the rivers. Do we really need all these plastic bottles?

Photographically I go along with what JL says. The impact is strong and well handled. The breaking wave looks almost forlorn but maybe it is plotting its revenge and there will be a big storm to wash everything away.
 

sign of the times comes to my mind. significant for human behaviour. a simple image telling a lot.
 

A well taken editorial that just makes me mad. We all know who the culprit is so this is an image about people but without the people in it. More than that it's about a certain kind of person or behaviour.
 

Some of the rubbish on this beach is contributed locally, but much of it comes in with the tide. This bottle probably went into the water in Wales or Ireland.

Many of the communities around here have beach clean up sessions, but nobody looks after this beach. It is just too far from any village.
 

Indeed a sad reflection of the environment we live in - a good reportage photograph. But out of this context it doesn' work for me. I would like much more depth of field (the out-of-focus sticks are too distracting) and the bottle slightly higher in the frame. Good contrast though.
 

Having just come back from Harris/Lewis and Skye this strikes a cord. Very few of the beaches we visited were free of jetsam and flotsam. Even some inland areas had debris which had originated from the sea, carried by 100mph winds!

I think that without the recent experience I would have struggled to get a message out of the image.