Coastal Litters, Problems and Solutions

Coastal Litters, Problems and Solutions

Introduction

Over the course of time, great attention is now being levied to coastal littering especially in the regional seas where marine life and environment is severely threatened by either death or degradation. Coastal litter is mainly made up of 60-80 percent plastics or plastic based material and over 80 percent originates from a land based source. Actually in some places, the plastic composition of coastal litter has been known to be over 90 percent of the entire litter composition. This is critical, considering the threat plastic poses to aquatic life in the sense that it not only injures or kills fish, marine mammals and seabirds, but causes transportation mechanisms for substances that are toxic to the aquatic environment (BSC 2007).

Organic pollutants attach themselves to plastic garbage and from there; currents can transport them to any part of the sea. The general impact is a fatal one caused by drowning, entanglement, ingestion, suffocation or starvation. The garbage has also been known to ferry invasive and dangerous marine species. Most of the waste discharges find their way into the sea via waste water effluent that has negative and adverse effects on landscape, ecology and biology in coastal areas. Increased settlement and high population around the coast has meant that there is now significant amount of litter finding its way into the sea. This issue escalates even further in third and second world countries where the principle targets are in increasing production that boosts and develops  the economy and in most cases, environmental protection issues are never much of a priority (BSC 2007). This paper will discuss the coastal litters, problems and solutions.

Coastal Litters, Problems and Solutions

Areas next to streams are the most vulnerable and most degraded and threatened as a result of relationship between terrestrial and marine environment conflicting with disturbances from human activities that affects either or both (Gillies et al. 2003). The river load factor in the Black Sea as well as in other regions is an example of least studied. Of course there are other factors such as man-made beach formation, sea pollution as well as river bank erosion (Jaoshvili 2002). Heavy anthropologenic activity on the Black Sea Rivers in Turkey, for example, has seen the construction of many dams and water reservoirs. Water flow in the rivers is thus controlled with the water being actively used for industrial and hydroelectricity purposes. A lot of municipalities are also storing solid refuse in river basins thus making for a high parameter in water pollution (Ucuncu 2007). These domestic and industrial pollutants can be acclaimed as the main cause of pollution of the Black Sea (Bakan & Buyukgungor 2000).

Global warming has also been a subject of hot debate in matters of the ocean world since it is a major cause of ocean acidification referred to as “the other global warming problem”. This acidity in the oceans, as it increases, has adverse effects on marine life. This affects not only the animals themselves but all in their respective food chains including those that are higher up. In reference to a Secretariat by the Caribbean Community in 2003, there is a close link between the economic activity levels of a country and the waste quantity they generated. Adverse lack of land means there is more and more settlement around the coastal areas thus more possibility of excess waste finding its way into the sea. Presence of manufacturing firms in the coastal vicinity means disposed-off or abandoned material could be potential coastal litter, irregardless of the source (Korotaev, Oguz, Nikiforov, et al. 2003).

The type of coastal litter can be classified into either land or ocean based; this is dependent on how the waste matter finds its way into the water (UNEP/GPA 2006). The former consists of untreated sewerage matter, discharged water from storm drains, manufacture plants or even solid materials dumped by beach goers, whilst the latter includes ocean litter from ships and other marine vessels.

Litter problem at the coast of Guyana.

All around the world, in every sea, coastal litter can be found. Due to strong winds and ocean currents, the litter can travel long distances and remains buoyant throughout. An estimated amount of above 6 million tons of coastal litter finds its way into seas and oceans annually according to the United States Academy of Sciences. There is also an estimated 8 million units of coastal litter per day of which 5 million comes from ships. This amount has tripled in the Pacific alone in the past 10 years. This not being sustainable, it has been agreed that another similar increase in the next 10 years is untenable. Floating debris has increased 10 times in less than a decade between the 70’s through 80’s and another 10 times in the 90’s in the coast of Japan. Northwest Pacific Gyre, some area in the north of Hawaii has also recorded a 5-time increase in plastic debris in the past decade according to researchers. It’s worse in the Southern Ocean where plastic waste has experienced a whooping 100 time increase during the 90’s. Between 1989 and 2007, over 9 million pieces of trash were collected in the Caribbean countries; of which only 9.3 percent was from an ocean based source- the remaining 90.7 percent originated from a land based source (Coe, & Rodgers 1997).

Shoreline/Recreational Activities (LBS), Ocean/Waterway Activities (OBS), Smoking

Studies have been carried out to quantify and more important to identify coastal litter in its different habitats. These are four: Ocean floor, Ocean water column, ocean surface and the beach. At the ocean floor is where to find large debris and material. This includes abandoned fishing equipment and large beverage cans. In the ocean water column, there are volatile plastic pieces that should be small enough to float in the water currents. On the surface, floating, is where to find either pieces or whole items of plastic garbage. At the beach is a host of assorted materials, different in size shape and relevance to the water edge. Thus, coastal litter varies with habitat, activity, and social surrounding (Petzold-Bradley, Carius & Arpad 2002).

Solution

A more objective approach can be used to cut down the rate of coastal littering that is a common feature on most seas and oceans to date. Prevent and controlling litter can involve either very complex or simple measures. Coastal litter researchers have compiled series of regional surveys, data compilation and collection and reviews on the subject. These include the Caribbean Regional Consultant, ICC data and Seba Sheavly The regional workshop that followed was meant to look into the nature of the problem and address areas such as; legislation, legal, policies and enforcement, solid refuse management exercise, monitoring & access programs and research, stakeholder engagement, institutional framework, outreach and education.

Simple measures such as controlling plastic debris in matters individual behavior change, cutting down on plastic packaging manufactured for single use only, sustainable packaging promotion that influences producer behavior change, trash clean-up and removal as a community based initiative, engage other regions especially in the pacific in coordinated efforts with other jurisdictions. All these could go a long way in reducing if not eliminating the menace that is coastal littering.

Much of coastal litter comes from a land based source. The surest way in curbing and containing this problem therefore lies in eliminating those sources. Study indicates that the primary component of litter is packaging material, which in itself is based on the land. Therefore, implementing a packaging oriented initiative could go a long way in fighting and eventually winning the battle on coastal littering. It is easier to prevent the waste packaging material from becoming litter than it is to later collect it when it has actually become a problem. Thus, cutting on packaging waste is a vital step in reducing littering since we have already established that it constitutes the largest amount of trash.

The less packaging we generate, the less potential coastal litter we get. A few pre-eminent methods have been formulated by the Steering Committee in an effort to curb packaging waste. For example, the Environmental Producer Responsibility (EPR) also referred to as the producer take-back, bans on some specific packaging types like the single-use shopping plastic bags, levying fees on items common in littering which can call for an initiative by both the consumer and the manufacturer to look for a more feasible and less litter-prone alternative packaging for their products. More affirmative action was actually taken in 2007 when Governor Schwarzenegger signed the Nurdles Discharge bill that meant no more pre-production of the plastic pellets known as “nurdles”. The bill, AB 258, came in force to prevent the production of the materials used to manufacture plastic that made up for above 17 percent of the entire ocean litter found on beaches. Cutting them out from the waste stream could really go a long way in fixing the problem at hand of coastal littering (Poulain, Barbanti, Motyzhev et al. 2005).

The Environmental Producer Responsibility (EPR) initiative also aims at placing the burden of packaging waste collection, delivery and disposal squarely on the product manufacturer. A financial or physical responsibility is placed onto them as a motivation to the producer to cut down on solid waste matter originating from packaging. First to implement the EPR approach was Germany. By implementing this, the Germans achieved a plastics recycling rate of over 75 percent. Comparatively, the United States of America has a rate of 5.5%. For the records, the Americans who comprise of only 5 percent of the world’s population produce half of the world’s total solid waste (Poulain, Barbanti, Motyzhev et al. 2005).

The other approach is the plastic bag prohibition and ban. Records clearly indicate that plastic is the main and most dangerous component of coastal litter. Riding the general social activity circles off plastic could well signal a battle half won in the fight against coastal littering. In the state of California alone, 19 billion plastic shopping bags leave grocery stores every year according to the Progressive Bag Alliance. Of these, less than 5 percent is recycled. The 2007 accord signed by Schwarzenegger was meant to cut down on production of plastics using new raw materials and thus rely more on recycled plastic. This drastically reduced the amount of packaging waste generated since the manufacturer will have to launch an initiative to facilitate plastic bags collection in order to remain in business. This is a suitable recommendation for the state of California to implement. If this could be enforced particularly in coastal towns, less and less refuse will find its way into the seas and oceans and the problem of littering would become a thing of the past (Coe, & Rodgers 1997).

Other sources of ocean littering can also include carbon dioxide emissions which are a threat to marine life, oil spills which are even more toxic and fatal to marine wildlife. The general idea is that all these are manageable if only humans can develop a more responsible attitude and approach to the way they live their day to day lives. Most oil spills do not necessarily come from shipping; most of it and the largest percentage at that come from urban run-offs, either from cars or petrol stations.

© Jennifer Kennedy / Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation

Conclusion

            This paper has discussed the coastal litters, problems and solutions. In urban areas of catchments especially along the coast, the idea “think globally, but act locally” could be a very relevant and useful approach. Every action, be it positive or negative has got a far and wide reaching effect and the impact could be felt long before and after the  actual control measures could be put in place. General responsibility is of essential need if the problems originating from coastal littering can be conclusively solved. All of us should be a part of the initiative to rid our coasts of this garbage menace.

Bibliography

BSC 2007, Marine litter in the Black Sea Region: A review of the problem. Black Sea Commission Publications, Istanbul, Turkey, p. 160 pp.

Bakan G, Buyukgungor H (2000). The Black Sea. Mar. Poll. Bull. 41: 24-43.

Coe J M, & Rodgers D. B. 1997, Marine Debris: Sources, Impacts and Solutions, Springer-Verlag: New York

Gillies RR, Box JB, Symanzik J, Rodemaker EJ 2003, Effects of urbanization on the aquatic fauna of the Line Creek watershed, Atlanta—a satellite perspective, Rem. Sens. E nv., 86: 411-422.

Jaoshvili S 2002, The Rivers of the Black Sea. Technical Report No. Gillies et al. 2003

Korotaev G, Oguz T, Nikiforov A, Koblinsky C. 2003, Seasonal, interannual, and mesoscale variability of the Black Sea upper layer circulation derived from altimeter data, J. Geophy. Res. 108: 1-19.

Petzold-Bradley E, Carius A, Arpad V. 2002, Responding to Environmental Conflicts: Implications for Theory and Practice. NATO Science Partnership Sub-Series 2. Results from the NATO Advance Research Workshop, January 1999. Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Poulain PM, Barbanti R, Motyzhev S, Zatsepin A. 2005, Statistical description of the Black Sea near-surface circulation using drifters in 1999-2003, Deep-Sea Res. 52: 2250-2274.

Ucuncu O 2007, The condition of river basins in Trabzon and its surroundings and comparing it with the regulation of water control, international congress on river basin management, Proceedings of international congress on water basin management, Gloria Golf Resort Hotel Antalya-Turkey, pp. 220-234.

UNEP/GPA, 2006, The State of the Marine Environment: Trends and processes, The Hague.

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