Community beach clean-ups could outperform high-tech solutions to remove plastic pollution

Local community beach cleans may be more effective than high-tech but often unproven removal techniques in limiting the harm of ocean plastic to the environment and humans, according to a new report. be.

The summary report, Legacy Plastics: Technologies and Interventions to Remove Existing Plastics from Aquatic Environments, published on the sidelines of the latest round of UN Plastics Convention negotiations in Ottawa, Canada, finds that plastic removal is most effective. We are considering how and where. .

The most important factor identified in the report is preventing plastic waste from entering the environment in the first place.

However, because environmental plastic concentrations are already high and expected to triple by 2060 in a business-as-usual scenario, they conclude that some plastic removal would be beneficial.

The report recommends identifying priority areas for cleanup, depending not only on where concentrations are highest, but also where plastic poses the greatest threat to ecosystems and human welfare.

Professor Richard Thompson OBE FRS, Professor of Marine Biology and Head of the International Marine Debris Research Unit at the University of Plymouth, is the report's lead author.

“While cleanup is not the solution to the plastic problem, there are situations where cleanup can be beneficial to protect ecosystems and limit potential harm to human health. Plastic pollution from the environment It is essential that technologies designed to remove 'are properly evaluated before deployment to ensure they are effective and have no unintended environmental impacts.

“However, solutions to plastic pollution must continue to focus on prevention rather than symptom management,” says Richard Thompson OBE FRS, head of the International Marine Debris Research Unit.

Approximately 88% of ocean plastic is predicted to accumulate near shorelines, often on beaches and estuaries. These areas typically support highly productive ecosystems with high economic value as tourist destinations, increasing the potential benefits of cleanup activities.

Research and technology play an important role in helping identify particularly environmentally vulnerable 'hotspots', but many of the proposed cleanup solutions are context-specific and therefore vary widely. Different solutions are needed to target the situation.

This report evaluated various remediation approaches and found that many technologies lack evidence regarding their effectiveness, scalability, and negative environmental impacts. If evidence exists, potential environmental impacts are confirmed.

In the absence of clear evidence regarding the overall benefits of technical cleanups, policymakers may focus on relatively low-tech solutions such as coastal and river cleanups that have low environmental impacts and provide a range of co-benefits. you need to guess.

In this report, marine biologists and ecologists comment on a variety of technologies designed to combat and remove plastic pollution, including ocean booms, magnetic separation, graphene carbon fiber aerogels, and beach hoovers.

Although many methods have shown promise in removing some plastics from certain environments, the report concludes that few methods can be used at scale or in a variety of different environments. . The environmental costs of many of these technologies are also poorly understood and should be fully evaluated before they can be deployed more widely.

Despite this lack of evidence regarding effectiveness, approximately two-thirds of the 27 plastic removal technologies evaluated in the report are currently manufactured and ready for use.

Alongside technologies designed to remove plastic from the environment, the report also looked at technologies that can identify hotspots of plastic pollution and help prioritize areas for cleanup.

Modeling can help predict where plastic pollution in the ocean is likely to accumulate, while drones can quantify and pinpoint plastic on coastlines, so where cleanup is most valuable and effective. may help prioritize.