The Multi-Materials Stewardship Board has released some startling statistics about the amount of litter on the province’s beaches.
The 2019 Coastline Litter Audit covered 30 sites across the province.
When analyzed with a similar study of roadside trash from 2016, it was estimated that there are over 200 pieces of litter per capita on roadsides and coastlines in the province.
In total, over 3,200 pieces of garbage were found along the beaches, 69 per cent of which were plastic. The area with the highest litter count was Newman’s Cove, in the Discovery Region, while the area with the lowest count was Pinware River Provincial Park in Labrador.
Over 1,700 pieces of waste were considered to be large. Fifty-four per cent of those were made of materials that could not be identified, 14 per cent were fishing gear, and eight per cent were beverage containers.
Just over 1,400 pieces were classified as small and of those, 27 per cent were hard plastic, 21 per cent were cigarette butts, and just over 11 per cent were metal.
We are pleased to share our report outlining findings from a Coastline Litter Audit. The audit was performed to quantify…
Posted by MMSB on Thursday, December 17, 2020