Plastic corresponds to 48.5% of items found at Brazilian sea
The Brazilian Association of Public Cleaning and Special Waste Companies (Abrelpe) carries out since 2018 the so called Garbage out of Water Project to monitor, prevent and fight garbage at sea and rivers in 11 cities at Brazil’s coast - where 14 million people live - including Santos and São Paulo.
According to a recent project’s survey, plastic waste corresponds to 48.5 percent of the garbage collected at Brazilian sea. Cigarette butts and styrofoam appear in second and third places among the 15 most found items, which altogether represent 80.3 percent of the waste that ends up on the Brazilian coast. The other 19.7 percent cover items such as clothing and fishing gear, among others. All are part of a sample that totals 16,733 items collected from the sand, beach, and mangroves.
Methodology
The methodology developed by the Garbage out of Water Project is the same used in the Caribbean, mainly in cities in Costa Rica, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
“About 22 million tonnes of plastics end up in the environment every year in the whole world, and around five to 12 million tones of plastic waste reach the oceans. About 80 percent of this total come from human activities developed on the continent, either on the coast or in regions where rivers flow into marine environments, as a result of failures that occur in urban cleaning and waste management systems in urban areas,” said Abrelpe CEO Carlos Silva Filho.
According to him, over two million tons of urban solid waste end up in rivers and seas every year in Brazil. However, this figure may be even higher since 30 million tons of garbage going to inadequate destination, such as dumps and controlled landfills, which still exist throughout the country, could lead to an increase of three million tons of garbage in the sea every year.
He explained the project also aims to identify the main sources of waste and assess how cities can improve solid waste management on land to prevent sea pollution.
Garbage source
The three main sources of garbage on the sea are communities in areas of irregular occupation close to water courses, drainage channels that cross urban fabrics, and the sand strip of beachfronts.
Surveys carried out by the Garbage out of Water Project “allow us to affirm that the best solution to the problem of garbage at the sea lies precisely in the improvement of urban cleaning systems and infrastructure in cities, which must take place together with permanent environmental education programs,” Abrelpe’s CEO added.
