Cigarette butts on Baltic Sea beaches: Monitoring, pollution and mitigation measures

Kataržytė, Marija; Balčiūnas, Arūnas; Haseler, Mirco; Sabaliauskaitė, Viktorija; Lauciūtė, Laura; Stepanova, Ksenia; Nazzari, Cristina; Schernewski, Gerald

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111248

Cited by 43 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Quanto as bitucas de cigarro, estudos mostram que anualmente 6 trilhões de cigarros são consumidos em todo o mundo, e 4,5 trilhões são jogados no ambiente, sendo considerados a forma mais comum de lixo pessoal no mundo (Araújo & Costa, 2019), assim como um dos itens mais encontrados em praias (Ivar do Sul et al, 2011;Rosevelt et al, 2013;Munari et al, 2016). Porém, no presente estudo poucos entrevistados relataram-nas como um tipo de lixo, como também identificado por Dias -Filho et al (2011) e Timbó et al (2019) em praias brasileiras e diferentemente de Rath et al (2012) em entrevistas nos Estados Unidos e Kataržytė et al (2020) em praias alemãs, que observaram que a maioria dos fumantes e não fumantes compreendiam que as bitucas de cigarro são um problema ambiental e apenas uma minoria de fumantes ainda não as reconhece como lixo.…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

Percepção de usuários de praias em relação ao lixo marinho como uma ferramenta para ações efetivas contra essa problemática

Bom¹,

Neves²,

Fraga³

et al. 2020

Braz. J. Aquat. Sci. Technol.

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This study aimed to identify the perception of beach users about the problem of marine litter, and to characterize them from the socioeconomic point of view. To this, 43 open questionnaires were conducted with users from Curva da Jurema and Ilha do Boi beaches, in Vitória, Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil. From the socioeconomic point of view, our results showed that there were no significant differences between the users of the two beaches. With respect to marine litter, the interviewees showed a high level of knowledge about this issue, knowing what the proper disposal of the litter they produce should be and what damage it can cause to the environment and also to humans. It is noteworthy that respondents blame other beach users for the accumulated litter, suggesting that the lack of education and awareness of other people is the main factor for beach garbage. Thus, we conclude that users of both beaches perceive the problem of marine litter, but do not identify their actions as part of the problem. Thus, constant measures are required in public-private partnerships focused on education on the subject, in addition to the installation of various points of garbage collection and monitoring their effectiveness. As a final product, actions were suggested with the different actors involved in the problem, in order to minimize the effects of this pollution.

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Section: Discussionunclassified

Percepção de usuários de praias em relação ao lixo marinho como uma ferramenta para ações efetivas contra essa problemática

Bom¹,

Neves²,

Fraga³

et al. 2020

Braz. J. Aquat. Sci. Technol.

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“…While smoking is prohibited by law on Chicago beaches, previous studies measuring AL on beaches in Chicago and elsewhere on the Great Lakes found smoking-related to be among the most abundant litter types [1,7,22]. Kataržytė et al [34] compared beaches across a gradient of visitor density and found the same pattern, which suggests beach-goers as the primary source of cigarette AL, rather than offshore sources.…”

Section: Distribution Of Litter By Materials Typementioning

confidence: 95%

“…Prevention of cigarette AL is confounded by a common misconception that cigarette butts are biodegradable [35]. Innovations to prevent cigarette butt litter on beaches include reuse of butts for insecticide, new labelling emphasizing environmental impacts, creative design of ashtrays, and waste taxes on cigarette sales [34,36]. To our knowledge, these approaches have not been tested on Great Lakes beaches, but the existing data sets on cigarette butt AL in this study and others [7,23,39] are well positioned to serve as "before" metrics if any novel prevention strategies are initiated.…”

Section: Distribution Of Litter By Materials Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Trash Dance: Anthropogenic Litter and Organic Matter Co-Accumulate on Urban Beaches

2020

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Anthropogenic litter (i.e., trash, AL) on beaches has negative ecological and economic impacts. Beach AL is likely moved together with coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM, algae, leaves), but no previous studies have assessed AL and CPOM co-distribution. We measured AL and CPOM on four urban beaches in Chicago, Illinois, USA, along two transect types (pier-adjacent, non-pier adjacent) in which each has three habitats (upland, beach, strand line). As expected, AL and CPOM density were positively related across all transects. AL and CPOM were significantly higher adjacent to piers, and variable among habitats. Wood, leaves, and smoking-related AL were most abundant in beach and upland zones while glass and algal detritus were abundant at the strandline. Overall, AL and CPOM show ‘patchy’ distribution attributed to wind and wave movement toward accumulation sites. Beach CPOM is a hot spot of biological activity (e.g., microbes, invertebrates, birds). Therefore, mixing of AL and CPOM suggests organisms may be more likely to encounter AL in mixed accumulations. Efforts to reduce the abundance and biological impacts of beach AL will benefit from emphasizing organic matter accumulation sites.

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“…For the hundreds of metal pieces found around St. Petersburg no origin could be identified. In general, it is doubtful that meso-and large micro-litter (JRC, 2011), industrial pellets (MSFD TSG ML, 2013), and cigarette butts (Kataržytė et al, 2020) can be monitored effectively if only the beach surface is visually investigated (OSPAR method) without having a closer look (sieving methods) in the upper layers of the beach sediment. This is especially so, given the greatest limitation for a precise quantification at the beach is the human eye (Vegter et al, 2014), which overlooks most of this litter without any sediment reduction step.…”

Section: Work Stepmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet as our study shows, these are important contributors to beach litter in the Baltic and North Sea environment and need a harmonized monitoring approach to quantify their amount. Avoidance and mitigation strategies to minimize the amount of paraffin (Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), 2019a,b), prevent spillage of industrial pellets (Plastics Europe, 2018); and introduce reduction measures for cigarette butts (European Commission, 2018;Kataržytė et al, 2020;Schneider et al, 2011) are important steps for a cleaner marine environment. However, such steps need to be evaluated to test if they lead to a quantifiable success.…”

Section: Work Stepmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine Litter Pollution in Baltic Sea Beaches – Application of the Sand Rake Method

Haseler

Balčiūnas

Hauk

et al. 2020

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Most marine litter monitoring methods used on beaches focus on macro-litter (>25 mm) only and show shortcomings regarding smaller litter classes (<25 mm), especially at Baltic Sea beaches. Therefore, we used a sand rake method developed for large micro- (2–5 mm), and meso- (5–25 mm) litter to quantify the overall pollution status of Baltic Sea beaches and to test if the method is useful in terms of the requirements of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Between July 2017 and October 2019, 197 sand rake method surveys were carried out at 35 regions around the Baltic Sea. In total, 9345 litter pieces were found on an area of 10,271 m2 of which 69.9% were 2–25 mm in size. Artificial polymers (4921 litter pieces) were predominant (mean 52.7% ± 13.3). Abundance of litter was 0.91 pieces/m2 ± 1.50 (median 0.40 pieces/m2). The most common litter were industrial pellets (19.8%), non-identifiable plastic pieces 2–25 mm (17.3%), cigarette butts (15.3%), and paraffin (11.9%). At 15 surveys at the German North Sea island of Sylt the litter abundance ranged from 0.45 pieces/m2 (median) to 0.59 pieces/m2 ± 0.37 (mean). Here, 69.2% of the litter was 2–25 mm in size and paraffin was predominant (69.2%). Beaches show a high pollution level with large micro- and meso-litter (2–25 mm) and our data can serve as a Baltic-wide pollution baseline. In contrast to the naked eye OSPAR method for macro-litter, the sand rake method is generally applicable on all sandy beaches, both urban and remote. This method also allows for the provision of a full spatial pollution pattern and can serve for assessing the effectiveness of marine litter mitigation measures.

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Cigarette butts on Baltic Sea beaches: Monitoring, pollution and mitigation measures

Cited by 43 publications

References 27 publications

Percepção de usuários de praias em relação ao lixo marinho como uma ferramenta para ações efetivas contra essa problemática

Percepção de usuários de praias em relação ao lixo marinho como uma ferramenta para ações efetivas contra essa problemática

Trash Dance: Anthropogenic Litter and Organic Matter Co-Accumulate on Urban Beaches

Marine Litter Pollution in Baltic Sea Beaches – Application of the Sand Rake Method

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