Litter Items Research Articles

Litter ingestion and entanglement in green turtles: An analysis of two decades of stranding events in the NE Atlantic

Survivorship of early life stages is key for the well-being of sea turtle populations, yet studies on animals that distribute around oceanic areas are very challenging. So far, the information on green turtles (Chelonia mydas) that use the open NE Atlantic as feeding grounds is scarce. Strandings occurring in oceanic archipelagos can provide relevant information about the biology, ecology and current anthropogenic pressures for megafauna inhabiting the open ocean. In this study, we analysed stranding events of green turtles found in the Azores archipelago to investigate interactions with marine litter. In addition, we quantified and characterized litter items stranded on beaches to provide a direct comparison between the ingested items with the debris found in the environment. A total of 21 juvenile green turtles were found stranded in the region between 2000 and 2020 (size range: 12–49 cm, CCL). Overall, 14% of the animals were entangled in marine litter and 86% of the turtles necropsied had ingested plastic. The mean abundance of items ingested was 27.86 ± 23.40 and 98% were white/transparent. Hard plastic fragments between 1 and 25 mm were the most common shape recovered in the turtles, similarly to what was found on the coastline. All of the litter items analysed with pyrolysis GC-MS revealed to be polyethylene (PE). This study provides the first baseline assessment of interactions of plastic litter with juvenile green turtles found at the east edge of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. The combination of these results supports the hypothesis that migratory megafauna that use remote oceanic islands as a feeding ground are exposed to anthropogenic litter contamination dominated by plastics, even when these regions are located far away from big industrial centers or populated cities.

Disentangling beach litter pollution patterns to provide better guidelines for decision-making in coastal management

Beach litter represents a worldwide problem impacting both terrestrial and aquatic environments. In the present study, we assessed beach litter pollution in a prominent touristic site in Brazil, the Jericoacoara National Park. In particular, we applied a delta-generalized additive modeling (GAM) approach in order to investigate pollution hotspots and to provide better guidelines for coastal environmental managers. A total of 7549 litter items were collected, resulting hard and flexible plastics the most abundant type. Our GAM analysis revealed that the distribution of each type of litter was affected by distinct drivers in the protected area, with the extension of the beach, tourist attractions, wind angle, and the distance to water bodies and villages as the most significant explanatory variables. Our model is suitable in predicting litter pollution hotspots on beaches, which is a valuable tool for future guidelines and effective management strategies to prevent beach pollution worldwide.

Is coastal erosion a source of marine litter pollution? Evidence of coastal dunes being a reservoir of plastics

This baseline reports scientific evidence of marine litter items embedded in the dune volume at two study sites on the North Atlantic Portuguese coast. We described how stranded litter participate in the sand dune growth/erosion processes on a natural beach-dune system. From the storm-eroded foredunes on the urbanized beach, we documented exhumed plastics with age up to 38 years. Whether litter burial was due to beach-dune morphodynamic processes, or to irresponsible and/or illegal dumping in the past, this work emphasises the need of improving buried litter census and monitoring on coastal dunes.Coastal erosion processes may further exhume litter buried in dune volumes and on other coastal environments over short- and long-term, re-exposing items into the marine environment. Thus, coastal erosion can be accounted as a secondary diffuse source of littering pollution, beside the multiple sources already identified in the environment.

Macro marine litter survey of sandy beaches along the Cox's Bazar Coast of Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh: Land-based sources of solid litter pollution

Macro-sized marine litter (>2.5 cm) was collected, characterized, and enumerated along the Cox's Bazar Coast, Bangladesh. Marine litter abundance was converted to density (number of items/m2). Beach cleanliness was evaluated using the clean-coast index (CCI). Plastic polythene bags were the most abundant litter items, followed by plastic cups. Total marine litter abundance was 54,401 ± 184 items. Major sources of marine litter were from tourism, fishery and residential activities. Of 10 sites surveyed, two were classified as dirty, two were moderate, four were clean and two were very clean using the CCI. Marine litter pollution along the Cox's Bazar Coast represents a potential threat to coastal and marine environments. This baseline study will help to establish mitigation strategies that are urgently required to reduce marine litter pollution along the Cox's Bazar Coast.

Marine Litter and Grading of the Coastal Areas of Ambon Bay, Indonesia

The coastal is frequently impacted by marine litter that damages marine wildlife and causes economic loss to fishing and maritime industries. In this study, we described the quantity of marine litter in the inner and outer of Ambon Bay. The Sampling was carried out in September 2017. The beach litter sampling was handled by the line transect method combined with the quadrant method in 8 sites; the observation of floating litter was conducted manually with boat sampling and visual observation in a seven-line trajectory. About 2359 items of coastal litter were found in seven sites in Ambon Bay with a mean density of 18.87 items.m -2. These beach litter belonging to five categories were counted (plastic, glass, metal, cloth, paper). The highest abundance of beach litter was found in the inner Ambon Bay with a mean density of 68.74 items per m2. Plastic was the most abundant beach litter observed. Based on Clean Coast Index (CCI) evaluation, all coastal sites in Ambon Bay were identified as Very Dirty, that is most of the coastal is covered with litter. The highest floating litter was found near the market. The abundance and distribution of litter through Ambon Bay seem to be influenced by the local human population, anthropogenic activities, and seawater circulation in inner and outer Ambon Bay.

Model based estimate of transboundary litter pollution on Mediterranean coasts

Plastic litter pollution is one of the major concerns for the health of marine ecosystems worldwide. This pervasive form of pollution affects all oceans and seas and it's interacting with multiple levels of the marine food webs. In the European context, several pieces of legislation try to fight against this pervasive and ubiquitous form of pollution. Recently, EU Member States have agreed to a maximum threshold of litter items per coast length (20 items/100 m coastline). One major concern among stakeholders to reach this consensus was the transboundary litter, as measures need to be implemented in the country of origin. Henceforth, a solid method to estimate the amounts of the transboundary litter to a given Member State's coasts is needed. In this contribution, we use a combination of hydrodynamic and Lagrangian models for the Mediterranean Sea in order to understand the origin of coastal litter. Simulations show that the amount of transboundary litter in Mediterranean countries could be as large as 30% although both regional and seasonal differences could be significant.

Citizen Science for Marine Litter Detection and Classification on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Images

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV, aka drones) are being used for mapping macro-litter in the environment. As drone images require a manual processing task for detecting marine litter, it is of interest to evaluate the accuracy of non-expert citizen science operators (CSO) in performing this task. Students from Italian secondary schools (in this work, the CSO) were invited to identify, mark, and classify stranded litter items on a UAV orthophoto collected on an Italian beach. A specific training program and working tools were developed for the aim. The comparison with the standard in situ visual census survey returned a general underestimation (50%) of items. However, marine litter bulk categorisation was fairly in agreement with the in situ survey, especially for sources classification. The concordance level among CSO ranged between 60% and 91%, depending on the item properties considered (type, material, and colour). As the assessment accuracy was in line with previous works developed by experts, remote detection of marine litter on UAV images can be improved through citizen science programs, upon an appropriate training plan and provision of specific tools.

Litter assessment at the Sakumono and La Pleasure coastal areas, Ghana

Abstract. Adjei O, Lamptey AM. 2021. Litter assessment at the Sakumono and La Pleasure coastal areas, Ghana. Indo Pac J Ocean Life 5: 83-91. Ghana has a difficult time managing waste, especially in the cities. The situation is even made worse in coastal urban areas by population growth. When the rains fall and wash the solid wastes downstream, most waste produced and lost inland ends up in the coastal and marine environment. In addition, revelers who use the areas for entertainment and tourism also contribute to the waste created. The Sakumono and La Pleasure Beaches in the Greater Accra Region served as the sites for this study. This study's primary goal was to assess how much waste was on the beaches at the two locations. The study made use of a transect measuring 1,000 m2. A total of 2,697 litter items were collected from the two beaches. During the survey, 50.07 kg from both sites comprised the entire weight of the litter collected. Comparatively, the amount of waste collected from La Pleasure was 18.28 kg, which accounted for 36.51% of the total amount of litter surveyed. The amount of trash collected from Sakumono Beach was 31.79 kg, representing 63.49% of the total litter surveyed. Plants were discovered to be the most prevalent material by weight and number. Plastics accounted for 72.56% of the total composition for both beaches, or 1,975 items, and 65.53% of the total composition, or 32.81 kg, respectively. In comparison to La Pleasure Beach, Sakumono Beach was found to be more littered. An alpha value of 0.05 (a p-value = 0.02) indicated this was significant. Ongoing monitoring, intensive education, and sensible policy initiatives are still essential to address the beach litter problem along Ghana's coasts.

Sources of marine litter along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast: Identification, scoring and contribution

The sources of marine litter (ML) pollution along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in 2019 were identified and categorized to: Public litter, Fishing, Shipping, Sanitary and sewage, Fly tipped, Medical and Non-sourced, following Veiga et al., 2016 approach. Largest was the contribution of Public litter - 48.3% and Non-sourced - 38.5% of the total. Most Public litter items were attributed to recreational activities - 82.9% Public litter Recreation and less to Public litter Smoking-related - 17.1%. Regarding to Non-sourced, the following sub-categories seemed to contribute clearly more: Land (run off) - 8.79% and Tourism beach users - 8.58%. Considerably lower was the contribution of Fishing, Offshore and Shipping. None of the items were attributed to Sewage related. The ML pollution on the individual beaches (10 sites) exhibited largest contribution of Public litter with most significant input of Public litter Recreation, varying from 65.9 to 86.7% between beaches.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of bio-based packaging solutions for extended shelf-life (ESL) milk.

The dairy market is one of the most important sectors worldwide, and milk packaging contributes to over one-third of the global dairy packaging demand. The end of life of the disposable packages is a critical stage of their life cycle, as demonstrated by the fact that disposable bottles are one of the litter items that are most found on beach shores. The aim of this paper is to analyse the performance of bioplastic bottles compared to other alternatives currently in use in the milk packaging sector, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Bio-compostable plastic can be a powerful means to create a circular economy for disposable items. A PLA-based bottle is compared to a PET bottle, a HDPE bottle, a multilayer carton, and a glass bottle. In the analysis, also secondary and tertiary packaging is included. The functional unit chosen is “the packaging needed to contain 1 L of ESL milk and to guarantee a shelf life of 30 days”. Two sensitivity analyses are also performed in order to assess the influence of the end-of-life stage on the total impact. The results show that, in accordance with the assumptions of an ideal scenario, bioplastic system has a better performance than fossil-based systems and multilayer carton in the categories of climate change, ozone depletion, human toxicity, freshwater eutrophication, particular matter, and land use. The recycling scenario strongly changes the impact of the glass packaging system in the considered categories.

Marine litter in the central Atlantic coast of Morocco

This paper presents a quantitative and qualitative diagnosis of the current state of marine litter along the northern coastline of Agadir, located on the central Atlantic coast of Morocco. For this, three beaches were surveyed: Taghazout beach, Aourir beach, and Anza beach. Litter densities were highest at Anza beach (D = 1.041 items/m 2 ), followed by Aourir beach (D = 0.339 items/m 2 ), and then Taghazout beach (D = 0.226 items/m 2 ). Plastics represent 79% of all collected items, and they are mainly composed of caps/lids, food containers, other plastic, cigarette butts and filters, polystyrene pieces, small plastic bags, and drink bottles. Metal is the second litter item in number, followed by paper/cardboard, rubber, cloth/textile, wood, and glass/ceramic. The Clean Coast Index (CCI) shows a clean and moderately clean state in the Taghazout and Aourir beaches, while Anza beach is more polluted. The EA/NALG classification showed that all three beaches are classified as “D,” i.e., dirty or poor-quality beaches. Dendrogram analysis showed very highly polluted areas (Anza 1), highly polluted areas (Taghazout 4 and 5; Anza 2; Aourir 3), moderately polluted areas (Taghazout 1 and 2; Aourir 1), and lightly polluted areas (Taghazout 3). Based on the obtained results, we can conclude that tourism and recreational activities were the primary source of marine litter (over 50%), followed by fishing activity (25%). Efforts are necessary to improve the quality of beaches located on the central Atlantic coast of Morocco. The typology of solutions suggested in this work can be divided into four approaches: cleaning, prevention, mitigation, and the most important … behavior change.

Anthropogenic litter in freshwater bodies and their estuaries: an empirical analysis in Lesvos, Greece.

The last decade increasing attention to litter accumulation in the marine environment revealed the issue of the terrestrial fluxes of plastic pollution into the oceans. However, limited studies investigate the macro-litter abundance and composition particularly in freshwater ecosystems and the adjusted coastal environment. In this study, we conducted an empirical analysis of anthropogenic litter (AL) in two freshwater streams and their estuaries of Lesvos island (Greece), strongly affected by the waste mismanagement in the Moria refugee camp. A total of 1,622 litter items were collected from five sites during the field campaign between the 3rd and 6th of June 2019. Among these, artificial polymer items (mainly drink bottles, single-use plastic bags, cutlery, and trays) irrespective of the site location constituted the major part ranging from 46 to 91% of total AL by mass. Drink bottles and plastic cutlery are found in higher percentage at Moria camp river and its estuary, while packaging and bag litter are more abundant at upstream sites. The operation of the camp has increased the AL abundance 13 times more than the reference site, causing severe threat to human health and to freshwater and marine environment. It is therefore important to improve the waste management system at (inter)national (change in production and packaging policy) and local scale (introducing sustainable solutions to refugee camp design) by promoting recycling and circular economy projects to diminish AL pollution.

Abundance and Temporal Distribution of Beach Litter on the Coast of Ceuta (North Africa, Gibraltar Strait)

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.

A rapid assessment of litter magnitudes and impacts along the Torre Guaceto marine protected area (Brindisi, Italy)

This study focuses on assessing litter magnitudes along the Torre Guaceto Marine Protected Area (Brindisi, Italy). Collected litter was grouped into twenty different types and classified into four litter typologies according to the Guidance on Monitoring of Marine Litter in European Seas. All data were analyzed using an index-based approach that allowed the classification of a coastal stretch in terms of cleanliness, and presence of plastics as well hazardous items. The average litter abundance in the study area was 0.5 items/m2, being plastics the most common litter item. Hazardous litter items were found along the study area, reaching 21.3% of the total collected items. The application of environmental indices allowed to define the study area with a “moderate cleanliness” and a “moderate” presence of hazardous litter items. Sampled litter typologies and related magnitudes suggest a combination of sources that mainly include direct activities on the nearby coastal zones and river basins (dumping).

Macroplastic Debris Transfer in Rivers: A Travel Distance Approach

Plastic accumulation in the marine environment is a major concern given the harmful effects and longevity of plastics at sea. Although rivers are likely to significantly contribute to the flux of plastic to marine systems, the behaviour of plastic debris in fluvial systems remains poorly understood and estimates of riverine plastic flux derived from field measurements and modelling efforts are highly uncertain. This paper presents a new probabilistic model of plastic transport in rivers which describes the main processes controlling plastic displacement and which predicts the statistical distribution of travel distances for individual items of buoyant macroplastic debris. Macroplastic transport is controlled by retention in temporary stores (or traps) created by vegetation, bank roughness elements and other obstacles. The behaviour of these traps is represented in the model via a series of Bernoulli trials conducted in a Monte Carlo simulation framework. The model was applied to a tracer experiment in a small 1.1 km river reach. Three replicates were used for calibration and three for validation. For each replicate, 90 closed air-filled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles were introduced at the upstream end of the reach and the location of each bottle was recorded after 24 h. Bottles were chosen as “model” macroplastic litter items given their high usage and littering rate. Travel distances were low. The average and maximum distances travelled over 24 h were 231 m and 1.1 km, respectively. They were also variable. The coefficient of variation of travel distances was 0.94. Spatial patterns were controlled by the location and characteristics of discrete traps. The model was able to describe the observed travel distance distributions reasonably well, suggesting that modelling plastic behaviour in longer reaches and even whole catchments using a stochastic travel distance approach is feasible. The approach has the potential to improve estimates of river plastic flux, although significant knowledge gaps remain (e.g., the rate and location of plastic supply to river systems, the transport behaviours of different types of plastic debris and trap effectiveness in different types of river system, season, and discharge).

Replicate analyses of OSPAR beach litter data.

Replicate surveys of beach litter have seldom been performed in the past. In this study, replicate surveys of beach litter were conducted on the beach north of Hörnum (Sylt, Germany), from 2015 to 2019, applying a slightly modified OSPAR protocol of beach litter monitoring. Descriptive statistics and power analyses were calculated on data resulting from these replicate surveys, to find out whether the scatter of replicate beach litter data decreases and the statistical power increases with increasing numbers of replicate surveys. From 2015 to 2019, mean total abundances, given as numbers of litter items, ranged from 19 to 185 litter items on a 50m section of beach. With increasing numbers of replicate surveys, the scatter given by the coefficient of variation (CV) significantly increased up to 113%. Statistical power considerably increased with increasing numbers of replicate beach sections, e.g. from 82% (two beach sections) to nearly 100% (five beach sections) for a given reduction of beach litter of 50%. Based on these results from a morphologically straight coastline, the use of replicate surveys would be sensible for the future monitoring of beach litter. However, there is high need for studies, which consider coastlines with varying morphology.

Monitoring Plastic Beach Litter by Number or by Weight: The Implications of Fragmentation

Eighty surveys of ten Scottish beaches recorded litter sizes and weights. A simple model of fragmentation explains the distribution of plastic beach litter weights, producing a logarithmic cascade in weight-frequencies having a power law exponent of 1.6. Implications of fragmentation are numerous. Heavy litter is rare, light fragments are common. Monitoring by number is sensitive to minimum observable fragment size, age of the litter, and energy of the foreshore. Mean litter item weights should be used to calculate beach plastic loadings. Presence/absence of mega litter can distort monitoring by weight. Multiple surveys are needed to estimate mega litter statistics. Monitoring by weight can change the perception of the importance of litter sources (e.g., in our surveys, contribution from fishing was 6% by number, 41% by weight). In order to introduce consistency between beach surveys using visual methods by number, a standard minimum plastic fragment size should be introduced.

A seasonal comparison of litter impacts along the Viña del Mar - Concón coastal strip, Valparaiso region of Chile

The Vina del Mar - Concón Coastal strip is well known for its urban beaches, which play an essential role in the national economy. With extreme urban development, these beaches have become more polluted by litter. This paper evaluates the abundance, spatio-temporal distribution, typology, and sources of beach litter in 14 sectors located inside this coastal strip. A total of 19,886 litter items were collected and grouped into 50 different categories (11 litter typologies). Overall average litter abundance was 0.21 items/m2 while during the fall and winter averages were 0.25 items/m2 and 0.17 items/m2. Values changed along the area and between seasons. Plastics, cigarette butts and paper-cardboard typologies dominated the samples with 42% (0.088 items/m2), 25.4% (0.053 items/m2) and 20.8% (0.043 items/m2).

Marine Litter Stormy Wash-Outs: Developing the Neural Network to Predict Them

Observations show that after stormy events, anthropogenic litter is washed ashore for short periods of time, providing the opportunity to collect and remove it from the environment. However, water dynamics in sea coastal zones during and after storms are very complicated, and the transport properties of litter items are very diverse; thus, predicting litter wash-outs using classical numerical models is challenging. We analyze meteorological and hydrophysical conditions in the Baltic Sea coastal zone to further use the obtained data as a training sequence for an artificial neural network (ANN). Analysis of the physical processes behind large litter wash-outs links open-source meteorological (wind speed and direction) and hydrodynamic reanalysis (surface wave parameters) data to the time and location of these wash-outs. A detailed analysis of 25 cases of wash-outs observed at the shore of the Sambian Peninsula was performed. The importance of the duration of the storm and its subsiding phase was revealed. An ANN structure is proposed for forecasting marine debris wash-outs as the first step in the creation of a neural network-based tool for managers and beach cleaners, helping to plan effective measures to remove plastics and other anthropogenic contaminants from the marine environment.

Macrozoobenthic fauna associated with benthic marine litter (Northern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy) and first report of two bryozoan species in Italian waters

Marine litter is a serious global environmental threat that has received increasing attention in the last decades from the academic world, intergovernmental organizations and agencies due to its impact on ecosystems, fisheries and, ultimately, human health. The Mediterranean Sea is characterized by one of the highest densities of marine litter in the world: although much research has been conducted on floating litter, little data exist on benthic litter and its associated macrozoobenthic fauna and only one study has investigated the matter in Italian waters. In the present work, marine litter was collected through demersal trawl nets in the coastal sector of Civitavecchia (northern Tyrrhenian sea, GSA 9) at 50–120 m of depth with the aim of (i) describing the marine litter-associated macrozoobenthic community, (ii) identifying the associations between macrozoobenthic species and litter categories and (iii) evaluating the presence of unrecorded and/or non-indigenous species (NIS) associated with marine litter. Marine litter was recovered from all hauls, confirming its ubiquity and global dispersion in coastal areas, with plastic materials being the most frequently retrieved category. The highest and lowest litter items density were 2125 and 312.50 items/km2. A total of 656 litter items weighing 15.8 kg were classified according to the MSFD Technical Group on Marine Litter categories and analyzed. Their associated fauna consisted of 1536 benthic organisms belonging to 62 species. Species abundance-wise, Bryozoans were the dominant taxon followed by Polychaeta, Bivalvia, Ascidiacea and Anthozoa. Six non-indigenous species (NIS) were retrieved on anthropogenic substrates and, among them, two bryozoans species previously unreported in Italian waters were herein recorded. At last, our results highlight the possible selective association between some sessile species and specific marine litter categories, even though further validation is needed.