Plastic tree guards, an environmental and woodland disaster?

From The Sunday Times, Jonathan Leake

"Britain’s attempts to rebuild its lost woodlands have resulted in plantations of plastic, with millions of “tree guards” shedding crumbling pieces of toxic polymers into soils and waterways. About 200m of the plastic tubes have been deployed by the Woodland Trust, Forestry England, the National Trust and private landowners over the past four decades. Many have been left to rot in the wild. The tubes, up to 6ft tall, are used to protect saplings from grazing animals, but scientists and conservationists are warning that the tree guards have become environmental disasters, spreading microplastic particles over hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness and contaminating rivers.
Many have been funded by the taxpayer..."