'Absolute Shambles': Anti-plastic Book Distributed With Plastic Covering

A British author has slammed a U.S. company for distributing his anti-plastic waste book with a shrink-wrapped single-use plastic covering.

Martin Dorey wrote "No. More. Plastic" in a bid to educate people on the overuse of plastic packaging and the harm it does to the environment. He said the decision to wrap the book in plastic undermines the work's main message, according to the BBC.

"It undoes all our hard work and proves once again that we are using plastic with our eyes closed," Dorey wrote on Instagram, branding the U.S. distributor's decision an "absolute shambles."

"We toiled hard on this," The British author said. "We worked with the printer to make it one of the most environmentally friendly books this year. And then this… I know my publishers are working hard to stop this in future but it still happens further down the line."

Penguin, the company that published the book, said it hoped Dorey's Instagram post "makes people stop and think as we head into a busy Christmas period."

Long-time environmental activist Dorey said of humanity's overuse of plastics, "It makes me very sad indeed that we are so clever, but so stupid."

"The point is that this book is about no more plastic and some idiot shrink-wrapped it in plastic without thinking" he added. "We're sleepwalking into oblivion with plastic and we need to change everything from the bottom up. We need to understand that this is not good enough."

"Your reusable mug will not be enough to save the world," Dorey wrote alongside the image of his shrink-wrapped book. "We all have to do everything at every level to stop the stupid senseless use of plastic."

Dorey launched the 2 Minute Beach Clean campaign in 2009 to encourage people to pick up marine litter. The group's website explains it is "a growing family of beach lovers rolling up our sleeves to help rid the world's beaches of marine litter and plastic pollution, two minutes at a time."

Penguin said it was contacting its U.S. distributors to find out who was responsible and stop the use of the plastic covering. A spokesperson told the BBC, "We worked very hard to ensure our book was environmentally friendly at every stage of the book process."

"This photo highlights brilliantly the over-use of plastic in our everyday lives and I hope the small positive is that this image might make people stop and think, as we head into a busy Christmas period of shopping and wrapping," the spokesperson added.