Earth Today | COVID-19 no deterrent to International Coastal Clean-up 2021
Published:Thursday | August 19, 2021 | 12:07 AM
GIVEN THE island’s continued struggle with plastics pollution, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) is this year forging ahead with plans for its annual International Coastal Clean-up.
While there will be no flagship clean-up site as in the past, given the reality of the pandemic; instead, there will be a number of small sites islandwide.
“We do have to observe the relevant COVID-19 protocols and as such, JET is not hosting its clean-up on the Palisadoes this year. However, we sent out registration for persons to register as coordinators of different beach clean-up sites. That means that persons can select a site and organise a group of persons to do the clean-up,” explained JET CEO Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie.
JET have so far received more than 200 applications for coordinators and requests for clean-up of more than 150 sites nationwide. Further details are to be shared on Friday, when the organisation will stage its official online launch of the 2021 activities.
Meanwhile, the JET boss noted that persons, once selected, would be provided with training – from raising awareness about pollution to COVID-19 protocols, and what is expected as they conduct their clean-up activities on September 18 and 19.
“We are also going to be sponsoring some kits, including hand sanitisers, gloves, T-shirts, and face masks,” Rodriguez-Moodie said, while admitting that given budgetary constraints, JET would not offer the usual stipend to coordinators.
The scale of the plastics problem in Jamaica is significant, with marine scientists, the likes of Professor Mona Webber, flagging the need for urgent and comprehensive interventions.
Citing research work in which she was involved, Webber, who is head of the Centre for Marine Sciences at The University of the West Indies, has noted that that includes attention to microplastics.
“We have completed a preliminary study that quantifies the microplastics associated with the mangroves in Kingston Harbour. This is Jamaica’s first baseline of microplastics in our waters, and values were as high as approximately 2.6 million particles per kilometre square. Compared to global values, we are what we would classify as a heavily polluted bay,” Webber told The Gleaner in 2019 of the study she undertook in collaboration with Deanna Rose from the International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences, also at The UWI.
“Microplastics in our waters can be consumed by fish and shellfish and, therefore, have the potential to get into our food, to be eaten by us. This material can have far-reaching health effects,” she added at the time.
Still, plastics, including microplastics, is not only a Jamaica problem. Data from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reveal that some 275 million metric tonnes of waste generated in 192 coastal countries is made of plastic, while 80 per cent of the litter in oceans is plastic. This is so even as oceans are projected to have more plastic than fish by 2050.
Since 1950, a reported 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced, along with 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste. In 2013 alone, 322 million tonnes of plastic was produced, according to UNEP.
In 2017, 4.8 million to 12.7 million metric tonnes of waste was dispersed in the oceans, damaging ecosystem to the tune of $8 billion.