Wessex Water has joined calls for urgent action to prevent plastic cotton buds reaching the UK’s  rivers, seas and beaches.

Bristol-based campaign group City to Sea has launched the Switch the Stick campaign, urging retailers to ditch cotton buds with plastic sticks in favour of biodegradable paper versions.

Millions of buds with plastics sticks which don't biodegrade are flushed down toilets in the UK every year and end up accumulating on beaches and rivers, where they break down into smaller pieces and can get eaten by birds, fish and other wildlife.

The campaign group is hoping to persuade thousands of people to sign a petition in favour of the switch, ahead of a meeting with major supermarkets and high street stores at the end of this month.

The campaign follows a new report by the Marine Conservation Society, which found that the amount of plastic waste dumped on UK beaches has soared by a third in the last year. Cotton buds are among the top five plastic items found - alongside bottles, bottle tops, crisp packets and smaller plastic fragments.

Wessex Water’s director of assets and compliance Matt Wheeldon commented:

"We do everything we can through our sewerage processes to prevent cotton buds reaching the environment, but the size and shape of them means they can pass through the filters."

Although the water company does not endorse flushing anything other than the three Ps - pee, poo and paper, he added that a biodegradable alternative to plastic cotton buds would not only reduce marine plastic pollution but also reduce the huge amount of plastic that reaches water company treatment plants and ends up in landfill sites.

City to Sea said it will continue to raise awareness of the issue while lobbying retailers and manufacturers to 'switch the stick' throughout 2017. Paper stem cotton buds are currently sold in Marks and Spencer, John Lewis and Co-op Food.