Abstract
Twelve beaches located in Ceuta (Spain) were studied from February to April 2019 to assess litter amounts (expressed as number of items), categories and temporal distribution. At each beach, three surveys were conducted, i.e., one per month (i.e., 36 in total). Selected beaches covered urban (7), rural (2) and remote (3) bathing areas. Plastic represented the dominant material, i.e., 35.2% of all debris, followed by glass (18.2%), pottery/ceramics (14.6%), wood (11.4%), metal (11.4%), paper/cardboard (4.8%), cloth (3.5%), rubber (0.7%), organic (0.3%) and other materials (0.1%). The Clean Coast Index was calculated to classify beaches in five categories for evaluating the cleanliness level of the coast observed at each survey: “Very Clean” (7 surveys), “Clean” (10), “Moderately Dirty” (8), “Dirty” (2) and “Extremely Dirty” (9). Litter occurrence was assessed by the Litter Grade methodology, which allowed to classify beaches in four grades: “A”: very good (0); “B”: good (4); “C”: fair (7); and “D”: poor (25). In a few surveys, some beaches were considered “good”, but their management should not be ignored because in other surveys those beaches reached fair and poor scores. Several potentially harmful litter items were related to beach users. Severe eastern storms removed litter at many of the beaches investigated and favored accumulation at others. Data analysis shows significant differences in litter abundance with respect to site, beach typology and the presence of cleaning operations but no important differences between the studied months. Rural beaches recorded the most litter, followed by urban and remote beaches. All beaches require immediate and more appropriate management actions to improve their environmental status.
Highlights
One of the largest growing industries in the world is “Travel & Tourism” [1], and in2019, international tourist arrivals recorded an increase of 6% to reach 1460 million and are supposed to arrive at 1.8 billion by 2030
The beaches of Ceuta have a particular litter content which hardly coincides with the rest of the Spanish beaches studied within other previous investigations
When litter proportions by type of material are considered, plastics acquire low values and, vice versa, other materials that are not very frequent in other places are more frequent in Ceuta, for example, metal, glass or wood
Summary
2019, international tourist arrivals recorded an increase (with respect to 2018) of 6% to reach 1460 million and are supposed to arrive at 1.8 billion by 2030. International tourism receipts grew worldwide by 3% in 2019 with corresponding incomes of USD 1481 billion [1]. In 2019, tourism incomes account for up to 25% of GDP in some destinations, e.g., small islands and some developing countries, where it can represent the most relevant pillar of the economy [2]. In 2019, represented the second destination in the world in the number of international tourism arrivals (i.e., 84 million) and related incomes (i.e., USD 80 billion) [1]. Numerous beach surveys concerning beachgoers’ preferences were carried out by Ergin et al [6] and Williams [7]
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