Plastic debris pollution on recreational beaches: A Malaysian case study

The significance of marine debris presence particularly plastic in marine ecosystem calls for proper monitoring strategies to establish a solid foundation for mitigation measures. The objectives of this paper are to study plastic debris distribution while correlating it to the level of awareness on marine pollution among beach users. It is aimed to investigate the impacts of tourism activities and the abundance of plastic debris on the beach. To quantify plastic debris on the beach, five points with duplicates were taken for three consecutive months. These sand samples were sieved through 1.00mm, 2.80mm and 4.7mm apertures. On the other hand, questionnaires were distributed to 625 beach users to study the awareness on issues related to marine pollution. Results indicated that the most crowded site accumulated the highest number of plastic debris (59 items), ranging between 1.00mm to 2.8mm (48% of the total weight of plastic). Debris sizing 4.75mm and more only contributed 41% of the total weight. Questionnaires data revealed that 2.4% of the respondents admitted to leave waste on the beach particularly if no garbage bins are provided, while the majority (92%) collect and throw the waste elsewhere. As for the cause of polluted beaches, 56% believed it is due to the indifferent attitude of the beach users that 20% of the respondents felt that stricter law should be enforced. It can be concluded that the number of plastic debris is highly influenced by the number of beach users. On the other hand, though it is lower in weight, smaller debris makes the largest number of items on the beach. While public believe that more stringent enforcement should be in place, an efficient waste management is also vital to prevent further detrimental impacts of plastic debris to the marine ecosystem

Waste to value added product: Vermicomposting of sugar cane bagasse and leaves using African nightcrawlers (Eudrillus Eugeniae)

The high volume of waste dumped per day leads to serious environmental issues. Among the issues is the generation of methane via anaerobic degradation of waste that contributes towards global warming. There are numerous options in minimizing organic waste disposed into landfills. This includes composting, recycling and vermicomposting. This study is aimed to investigate the possibility of treating sugar cane leaves and bagasse via vermicomposting by using Eudrillus eugeniae (African night crawler) worms. Therefore, the study compared degradation potential between sugar cane bagasse and leaves. Each of sugar cane bagasse and leaves were mixed with soil at selected waste to soil ratios namely 9:1, 7:3 and 1:1. Ten Eudrillus eugeniae with an average weight of 2.5±0.1g were added to each experimental set-up excluding the control. The result indicated that active burrowing potential of the worm into the soil was able to degrade the sugar cane leaves and sugar cane bagasse within 5 weeks and 6 weeks respectively. Also, the 1:1 treatment showed greater reduction of waste with increasing number of worms as compared with 9:1 treatment. Estimated degradation rate via vermicomposting was ±9.09 x 10-2 kg per day for the sugar cane leaves and 7.14 x 10-2 kg per day for sugar cane bagasse. The sugar cane bagasse and leaves are highly potential to degrade via vermicomposting but sugar cane leaves showed a better result to compost in a shorter duration compared to bagasse. Also, the vermicomposting of sugar cane bagasse and leaves using Eudrillus eugeniae in the ratio of 1:1 can be a better tool to divert the organic component from waste stream; to minimize the volume of waste disposal into landfill and produce the value added compost as the final product

Corrigendum to “Priorities to inform research on marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia” [Sci. Total Environ. volume 841 (2022) Article 156704]

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159595SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT857Pt

Priorities to inform research on marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156704Sci Total Environ841156704