Beach Pollution and Clean-ups

Photo credit: Pixabay

I see a small family in front of me - man, wife and 2 small kids. A normal-seeming, looking from outside educated people. Loving each other and loving nature. They swim, tan and build sandcastles. They enjoy each other's company and the beautiful scenery. As it started to get cooler, they pack up and leave. And in their wake leaving cool drink cans, bottles and empty crisp packets lying on the beach...

How many times have we seen this before? How much trouble would it be to just take your own rubbish with you? Throw it in the bins at the parking lot! Haven't they heard about "leave nothing behind but your footprints"? After a public holiday or perfect beach day one cannot believe the amount of rubbish left behind! But it is not only the thoughtless visitors littering on our beaches. You would not believe where the rubbish and litter on and around our beaches come from! Oil containers from Argentina landed on the beach at Saldanha Bay, bottles from South Africa ending up in Perth, Australia!

The ocean was once seen as vast and limitless, endlessly able to absorb whatever rubbish we dumped in it.  But instead of disappearing, marine debris stay in the environment, fouling up our beautiful beaches, threatening human health and endangering marine life.  Overall 96% of identifiable items collected on South African beaches were manufactured locally, but the proportion of foreign-made artifacts ranged from less than 2% at urban beaches to 14% at remote beaches.  Assuming that most foreign-made debris derives from ships, it would appear that as much as 80% of the plastic pollution in our seas is derived from land based sources.  This would emphasise the fact that littering is a people problem.

Photo credit: news.sky.com

We live in an era where plastic has taken over our lives. It is everywhere... even inside some of us! The very qualities that have made plastics so vital to life today, make them ideally suited to pollute the marine environment.  Plastics are not designed to biodegrade.  A plastic container will survive a landfill site for between 50 and 80 years and most plastics will have a long life in the sea.  As a result of its durability, and the ease with which it may be transported plastics make up more than 80% of marine litter.  The average age of plastic litter on beaches is 2.9 years; older material is generally in fragments and stranded high on the shore.  Over half of the stranded plastic is in the form of containers for lavatory and household cleaners, which are made of polyethylene.

Nurdles also add a large portion to the percentage of plastic pollution. These small pellets polythene, polypropylene and even polystyrene form the building blocks of the plastic industry and are now found widely in our oceans and on our beaches. They probably reach the sea through accidental spillages at ports, or factories close to rivers.  They are buoyant, virtually indestructible and are presumably steadily accumulating in the sea and on coasts all over the world.  These nurdles absorb pollutants such as DDT, PCB`s and organochlorine pesticides which are extremely harmful to both marine life and humans if consumed.

Other types of litter, such as foamed plastics and fragments of plastic articles are also found on beaches close to major centres, which emphasises the significance of land-based sources of marine litter.  Crude estimates suggest that in Cape Town alone, more than four million litter items find their way into storm-water drains, and eventually the sea, every day.  Plastic packaging and recreational fishing wastes contribute significantly to the tally of large litter items found on South African beaches.

Marine plastic pollution has impacted at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species and 43% of all marine mammal species. The impacts include fatalities as a result of ingestion, starvation, suffocation, infection, drowning, and entanglement.

Trash in the water also impacts the livelihood of those who work on the ocean and causes economic damage by affecting tourism and recreation and the money they bring into those communities close to the ocean shore.

In 2017 South Africa celebrated 21 years of participating in the annual International Coastal Clean-Up (ICC). Each year, more than 700 000 volunteers in 127 countries around the world give two hours of their time on the third Saturday in September to remove litter from beaches and the marine environment. We are proud to say that one of our sponsors Plastics SA and also Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife coordinates South Africa’s participation in the world’s biggest volunteer effort for ocean health and sustainability.

Read up on this:
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/coastal-clean-up-day-south-africa-needs-you-to-keep-our-beaches-clean/

The effectiveness of a clean-up continues long after the last bag of trash is hauled away and the tired volunteers go home.  Many people are shocked into action by the sheer volume of rubbish and starts recycling campaigns and public education programs or adopt a beach.

But - luckily - it is not only once a year in the third week of September, that South Africans take their responsibility as custodians of our coasts seriously. On a regular basis we hear about organisations, clubs and individuals sacrificing their time to do  wonderful work in the creation of our Lord.  In this way God's children let their lights shine!

The mountains of litter and rubbish on our beaches is a stark reminder that something is amiss with our lifestyle. That we - in South Africa and in the world - still do too little to recycle and to contain pollution.  We still look elsewhere for someone to do what we need to do... to have a positive impact…

Are you ashamed of the status of our Lord's creation? Do you want to make a difference? Be involved in clean up actions or organise your own!

Even if you just pick up the rubbish left behind on the beach by the family sitting in front of you...