The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states
Small island states receive unprecedented amounts of the world’s plastic waste. In March 2019, we removed as much plastic litter as possible from Aldabra Atoll, a remote UNESCO World Heritage Site, and estimated the money and effort required to remove the remaining debris. We removed 25 tonnes at a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| 格式: | Journal article |
| 语言: | English |
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Nature Research
2020
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| _version_ | 1826307446657777664 |
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| author | Burt, AJ Raguain, J Sanchez, C Turnbull, L Et al. |
| author_facet | Burt, AJ Raguain, J Sanchez, C Turnbull, L Et al. |
| author_sort | Burt, AJ |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Small island states receive unprecedented amounts of the world’s plastic waste. In March 2019, we removed as much plastic litter as possible from Aldabra Atoll, a remote UNESCO World Heritage Site, and estimated the money and effort required to remove the remaining debris. We removed 25 tonnes at a cost of USD224,537, which equates to around USD10,000 per day of clean-up operations or USD8,900 per tonne of litter. We estimate that 513 tonnes (95% CI 212–814) remains on Aldabra, the largest accumulation reported for any single island. We calculate that removing it will cost approximately USD4.68 million and require 18,000 person-hours of labour. By weight, the composition is dominated by litter from the regional fishing industry (83%) and flip-flops from further afield (7%). Given the serious detrimental effects of plastic litter on marine ecosystems, we conclude that clean-up efforts are a vital management action for islands like Aldabra, despite the high financial cost and should be integrated alongside policies directed at ‘turning off the tap’. We recommend that international funding be made available for such efforts, especially considering the transboundary nature of both the marine plastic litter problem and the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity-rich islands.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:03:16Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:71b3f1a4-7d56-4129-a11c-fb665ec8afe4 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:03:16Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Nature Research |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:71b3f1a4-7d56-4129-a11c-fb665ec8afe42022-04-19T06:48:41ZThe costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island statesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:71b3f1a4-7d56-4129-a11c-fb665ec8afe4EnglishSymplectic ElementsNature Research2020Burt, AJRaguain, JSanchez, CTurnbull, LEt al.Small island states receive unprecedented amounts of the world’s plastic waste. In March 2019, we removed as much plastic litter as possible from Aldabra Atoll, a remote UNESCO World Heritage Site, and estimated the money and effort required to remove the remaining debris. We removed 25 tonnes at a cost of USD224,537, which equates to around USD10,000 per day of clean-up operations or USD8,900 per tonne of litter. We estimate that 513 tonnes (95% CI 212–814) remains on Aldabra, the largest accumulation reported for any single island. We calculate that removing it will cost approximately USD4.68 million and require 18,000 person-hours of labour. By weight, the composition is dominated by litter from the regional fishing industry (83%) and flip-flops from further afield (7%). Given the serious detrimental effects of plastic litter on marine ecosystems, we conclude that clean-up efforts are a vital management action for islands like Aldabra, despite the high financial cost and should be integrated alongside policies directed at ‘turning off the tap’. We recommend that international funding be made available for such efforts, especially considering the transboundary nature of both the marine plastic litter problem and the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity-rich islands. |
| spellingShingle | Burt, AJ Raguain, J Sanchez, C Turnbull, L Et al. The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states |
| title | The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states |
| title_full | The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states |
| title_fullStr | The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states |
| title_full_unstemmed | The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states |
| title_short | The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states |
| title_sort | costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states |
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