[BBC News] Plastic 'scourge' of Manx beaches

[Newsbot]

Plastic litter is the scourge of the Isle of Man's beautiful beaches, according to conservationists.

 

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/7346249.stm

[Lonan3]

Perhaps we could recycle it into some kind of astro-beach.

[keyboarder]

Actually, plastic litter, whilst doing little to enhance the natural beauty of the island's beaches, is not THE scourge. Dogs (and their filthy owners) are. And I should know, as I am often to be found taking a stroll on an island beach.

[integer]

Surely even the DLGE can see a link between excess plastic litter and the lack of plastic recycling facilities on the island....

[Skeddan]

How much is actually from local littering and how much is washed up on shore? If it's washed up, then do these environmentalist groups propose doing about it? (Apart from mucking in themselves to pick it up). If it's local littering, isn't is simply a case of enforcing existing bylaws?

 

Perhaps dogs could be trained to pick up the litter. Maybe when there's enough it could be returned to the former owner.

 

Sorry integer - I don't see the link with lack of recycling facilities. I could see a link with lack of rubbish bins, lack of enforcement of bylaws, or marine garbage disposal in the UK, or Isle of Man's position in tidal currents. I don't see how having a recycling facility would reduce littering - unless you are suggesting people who would otherwise be using the recycling facility are instead dropping litter on the beaches rather than put it in a rubbish bin.

[Frances]

IMO the best action for the island is to burn it in the incinerator - the cost (both financial + energy) in collecting, sorting and transport to UK would be high - after all it is equivalent to importing fuel oil for Peel power station and that is burnt

[fubar]

IMO the best action for the island is to burn it in the incinerator - the cost (both financial + energy) in collecting, sorting and transport to UK would be high - after all it is equivalent to importing fuel oil for Peel power station and that is burnt

 

It's not often that I agree with anything that Keyboarder says but I'm with them on this one. I went for a walk along Marine Drive yesterday and in a 10 metre strech alone, there must have been about 20 dog eggs!

 

I wish dog owners would take responsibility and bag it and bin it.

[Moghrey Mie]

How much is actually from local littering and how much is washed up on shore? If it's washed up, then do these environmentalist groups propose doing about it? (Apart from mucking in themselves to pick it up). If it's local littering, isn't is simply a case of enforcing existing bylaws?

 

Perhaps dogs could be trained to pick up the litter. Maybe when there's enough it could be returned to the former owner.

 

Sorry integer - I don't see the link with lack of recycling facilities. I could see a link with lack of rubbish bins, lack of enforcement of bylaws, or marine garbage disposal in the UK, or Isle of Man's position in tidal currents. I don't see how having a recycling facility would reduce littering - unless you are suggesting people who would otherwise be using the recycling facility are instead dropping litter on the beaches rather than put it in a rubbish bin.

 

 

There is an organisation looking at marine ltter in the Irish Sea. I think it may be part of the Anglo-Irish council which encourages countries to co-operate.

 

Lots of people are willing to volunteer to do regular beach cleaning. The trouble is there is no regular schedule they can join. And also you have to take out public liability insurance if you organise anything like that.

[sarahc]

operate.

 

Lots of people are willing to volunteer to do regular beach cleaning. The trouble is there is no regular schedule they can join. And also you have to take out public liability insurance if you organise anything like that.

 

Which is why local authorities should organise them. They already have public liability insurance as well as the most important thing of all - the legal responsibility to sort out litter in their area.

[jimbms]

I take it before anyone spouts off about people dropping litter you have examined the tidal flows around the island and calculated that there is a strong chance 80% of this shite comes from UK

[Skeddan]

I take it before anyone spouts off about people dropping litter you have examined the tidal flows around the island and calculated that there is a strong chance 80% of this shite comes from UK

From what the article was saying, it seems that it is washed up litter - the person from the UK Marine Conservation Society who did the survey is reported as saying:

"It [the washed-up plastic litter] runs into many many thousands of pieces just over a short distance of the beach," he said.

 

"It can be anything from little bits of string or cotton buds right through to great big chunky bits of plastic, and sheets and all sorts."

 

This doesn't sound like the kind of litter that locals and tourists going down to the beach might drop, but rather litter washed up by tidal flows. Even so, as sarahc says, it is still the responsibility of the local authorities to deal with litter in their areas.

 

Since the level of litter is "at its highest level since records began", it sounds like something different is happening - probably from rubbish being dumped at sea. Maybe the UK regulations aren't good enough, or these aren't being properly enforced and corners are being cut.

 

I wonder if tidal flows could be used to trace the possible points of origin - specific dumping grounds and contractors who might be responsible.

 

I also wonder whether the bill for litter collection could be passed back to the UK - if that is where it is from. If a neighbour's negligence and omissions mean that their rubbish spills over into your property.... If it is illegally operating contractors - whether from IoM or UK, maybe legal action could be taken against them - with recovery of these costs. Why should taxpayers and ratepayers have to pick up the cost, and leisure and tourism businesses suffer - especially as tolerating this only allows the problem to persist. Having to put up with washed up rubbish stinks.

[Lonan3]

I wish dog owners would take responsibility and bag it and bin it.

I don't like dogs either...but I don't think you're really allowed to do that to them!

[Jimcalagon]

IMO the best action for the island is to burn it in the incinerator - the cost (both financial + energy) in collecting, sorting and transport to UK would be high - after all it is equivalent to importing fuel oil for Peel power station and that is burnt

 

I would have thought that the ideal solution for the island's waste would be a Thermal depolymerisation plant.

Thermal depolymerisation is a chemical process which allows you to take most types of waste - ordinary household waste including plastics, chemical waste, old tyres, even bio-hazardous waste that is usually difficult to dispose of safely - and break it down into light crude oil and gas.

 

Some of the gas is used to power the plant and the oil can be sold on (at considerably less than the current market price for conventionally produced oil). This isn't pie-in-the-sky stuff - there is already a plant operating in the US which buys turkey offal from a nearby butterball factory and turns it into high-quality oil - and turns a profit into the bargain.

 

And there could be other benefits...

 

Thermal depolymerization will reduce greenhouse emissions because the carbon loop is closed. The same carbon you pump out of your tailpipe is drawn back through the normal processes of growth and feed and eventually waste. The cheaper this becomes the less need there will be to consume crude oil which is "new" carbon added to the chain.

 

Much better than an incinerator which just burns rubbish to heat up water to power a turbine and has a stack of ash to dispose of afterwards.

[jimbms]

I wish dog owners would take responsibility and bag it and bin it.

I don't like dogs either...but I don't think you're really allowed to do that to them!

Remember a dog is for life...........................Not just friday nights

[Skeddan]

I would have thought that the ideal solution for the island's waste would be a Thermal depolymerisation plant.

Thermal depolymerisation is a chemical process which allows you to take most types of waste - ordinary household waste including plastics, chemical waste, old tyres, even bio-hazardous waste that is usually difficult to dispose of safely - and break it down into light crude oil and gas.

Thermal depolymerisation does seem quite good. Even so, despite the benefits one gets from recycling, does that make it ok for this litter to be washed up on the beaches - i.e. making this desirable?

 

I would have thought that the ideal solution for this waste would be for the people dumping the rubbish at sea to be recycling it in this way - and not contaminating the sea and polluting coastlines.