47-year-old plastic bottle washes off debris on the British coast

A plastic bottle for dishwashing liquid dating back at least 47 years old has been stranded on a British beach, sparking calls for action to combat the "modern plague" of synthetic waste.

The Burnham Coast Guard rescue team said the bottle of the famous British Fairy dishwashing brand was found among large amounts of debris that swept a beach in Somerset, England, last week.

"This bottle floats in our waters and still looks almost new," wrote the rescue team in a message posted on Facebook.

The age of the bottle was deducted by a slogan on the front that reads "4D OFF", which means that it must have been made before the 1971 decimalisation of the British currency.

At that time, the letter D was the symbol of the sub.

"It's probably the oldest plastic we've seen," said the Burnham Coast Guard rescue team at Euronews.

They added that nearly 200 coaches and other US priced items had also been found on the beach.

The team described the decades-old bottle as "a stark reminder of the long-term effects of using plastic" as it encouraged people to be more diligent in disposing of garbage in garbage cans. and to pay more attention to what they were throwing down the toilet and join a cleaning group at the local beach.

An estimated 300 million tonnes of plastic are littering the world's oceans, including more than 5,000 billion pieces, weighing more than 250,000 tonnes, currently floating on the surface, according to the Oceana Marine Conservation Group.

The Burnham Coast Guard rescue team said it hoped the bottle "could change people's attitude toward single-use plastics."