Abstract
Small island states receive unprecedented amounts of the world’s plastic waste. In March 2019, we removed as much plastic litter as possible from Aldabra Atoll, a remote UNESCO World Heritage Site, and estimated the money and effort required to remove the remaining debris. We removed 25 tonnes at a cost of $224,537, which equates to around $10,000 per day of clean-up operations or $8,900 per tonne of litter. We estimate that 513 tonnes (95% CI 212–814) remains on Aldabra, the largest accumulation reported for any single island. We calculate that removing it will cost approximately $4.68 million and require 18,000 person-hours of labour. By weight, the composition is dominated by litter from the regional fishing industry (83%) and flip-flops from further afield (7%). Given the serious detrimental effects of plastic litter on marine ecosystems, we conclude that clean-up efforts are a vital management action for islands like Aldabra, despite the high financial cost and should be integrated alongside policies directed at ‘turning off the tap’. We recommend that international funding be made available for such efforts, especially considering the transboundary nature of both the marine plastic litter problem and the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity-rich islands.
Highlights
Small island states receive unprecedented amounts of the world’s plastic waste
During the clean-up a total of 26.4 tonnes of marine plastic litter was collected from the coastal areas of Grande Terre, but only 25.7 tonnes could be removed from the shore to the cargo vessel and transported back to Mahé
Of the litter collected and removed from Aldabra, the largest component by weight was fishing-related items which collectively made up 60% (15.8 tonnes) of the total, followed by plastic shoes, which made up 24% (6 tonnes) of the total (Figure S1)
Summary
Small island states receive unprecedented amounts of the world’s plastic waste. In March 2019, we removed as much plastic litter as possible from Aldabra Atoll, a remote UNESCO World Heritage Site, and estimated the money and effort required to remove the remaining debris. Given the serious detrimental effects of plastic litter on marine ecosystems, we conclude that clean-up efforts are a vital management action for islands like Aldabra, despite the high financial cost and should be integrated alongside policies directed at ‘turning off the tap’. 6,300 million metric tonnes of plastic waste has been generated worldwide, and because collection and recycling facilities are unavailable or inadequate in most countries, up to 12.7 million tonnes is estimated to enter the oceans annually[2] This figure is likely to remain high for the foreseeable future, despite global efforts to reduce single-use plastics[3,4,5,6,7]. Quantifying the resources needed for removal efforts is critical to estimate the financial burden on small island states like Seychelles to manage marine plastic litter, and to allow such nations to adapt and plan
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