LITTER AUDITS REPORT 2018
SUMMARY
Villimale’s beaches have always been neglected by the government authorities and no one was publically concerned about the littering problem and garbage accumulation. At that time (2012), people used to swim in a lagoon full of garbage and have picnics surrounded by waste. Due to the concerns from the local community, Save the Beach Maldives (STBM) started the project Conservation and Beatification of Villimale’ Island, to protect the natural environment and maintain healthy conditions on the beaches and the reef surrounding the Island.
When the project started in 2012, it was not possible to find any baseline survey since litter audits have never been done to quantify the amount of waste accumulated on the beaches in the Maldives. The first litter audit in the Country took place on Villimae’ east-side beach in 2012. Every two-year litter audits are done on the same spots, to detect the trend and improvements in the community.
Litter audits consist of auditing and classifying all the garbage found in a certain area. They are fundamental to determining and understanding how much litter is disposed of in a given area and to understanding people’s good or bad practices after introducing dustbins and signboards on the beaches.
Right after placing the dustbins, it was possible to witness a big improvement. During weekdays, the beaches resulted very clean unlit the weekends. On Weekends, lots of people from Male’ and other islands visit the beaches and leave behind a lot of their litter.
This report consists on:
• The scope of Work by STBM
• The Challenges that STBM face while trying to keep the beaches clean
• Objectives of doing litter audits
• Method of litter audit
• Audited sites
• Data analysis of Litter audits
• Comparisons of litter audit from 2012 to 2018
• Extrapolation of beach litter audit
INTRODUCTION OF K. VILLIMALE’
Villimale’ is located in North Male’ atoll and it is considered the fifth district of Male’. With a population of 15,000 people, the Island lies about 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) west of Male’ and it is reachable via a local ferry (8 minutes trip) with a 24/7 service.
Before it became a residential island Villimale’ used to be a resort, it was the second island used as a resort when the first one (Kurumba Island Resort & Spa) was overbooked.
At that time, a few guest rooms, a restaurant and a diving school were developed for the guests. Villimale’ was a beautiful virgin island with natural beaches all around it. It was possible to reach 4 of the best dive sites in the atoll and the southeast channel was famous for the high rate of encounters with hundreds of sharks.
When Villimale’ became residential, it was initiated as an “environmentally friendly” Island. Very few diesel vehicles were allowed just for the necessary needs (for the police, ambulance, firemen, electric company and few other’s heavy load vehicles), also, a buggy service was provided as a taxi. Thanks to the solar panels installed, 25% of renewable energy is distributed within all households.
Later started the coastal development, a harbour and a jetty were built and three areas of Villimale’ were reclaimed. With all the developments the island was left with only three natural beaches and lots of damage was given to the Island itself and the surrounding reef, which protects the shore. The construction affected also the shoreline plants.
At that point, STBM felt the need to protect the Island, since it was the only one left for half of the Maldivian population to enjoy the natural environment.
INTRODUCTION OF STBM CLEAN-UP PROGRAMMES
STBM started cleaning the beaches of Villimale’ in 2007.
During the first clean-up with the community, we collected around 3 tons of litter from the northeast beach. There were many different typologies of litter from household waste (couches, beds, pillows, cupboards, TVs), washed waste (plastic bottles and snack packaging) and hazardous waste (like stoves and oil barrels).
In 2012 STBM placed 40 dustbins around the Island, which are daily cleaned and emptied. Also, all three beaches are cleaned in the morning every day and clean-up events with schools and other organisations are held every year.
In the same year, the very first litter audit took place in Villimale’.
CHALLENGES
Once the beaches were clean lots of people were attracted to the Island to do BBQ during the weekend. But to do BBQ they had to choose a good site far from the island erosion, this happens always to be under some tree. Due to the heat of the fire, a part of the tree was alwasy dying and the residual charcoal left on the beach wwasdamaging the environment. So, with the help of the community STBM developed a BBQ spot in the industrial area near the beach (Southeast side of Villimale').
Furthermore, as Villimale’ is located between the garbage island (Thilafushi) and Male’ City, a lot of litter is always drifting to the Island.
In fact, in easterly monsoon, the garbage will come from Male’, and in the westerly monsoon lot of litter is coming from Thilafushi. This is one of the biggest challenges faced while trying to keep clean Villimale’ beach.
Also at the beginning of the project, the historical behaviour of the community was not helping. In the past, the beaches were used as places where to wash the plates and pots and where to throw all the leftovers. At that period of time, the household waste was not a problem, because everything thrown to the beaches was all biodegradable which degrades very fast and it was a feast for marine organisms. But when plastic was introduced we did not realize how harmful or how toxic it will be to our environment and our self’s.
Plastics were widely used by most of the Maldivians throughout the Country (specially plastic bags). The behaviour of our community changed very fast, the dishes were washed in the houses and the organic waste was collected in plastic bags which were thrown on the beaches. This practice was happening all around the Maldives and we believe this was one of the reasons why we collected 3 tonnes of garbage in our first clean-up.
OBJECTIVE
The main objectives of this project are (i) to determine how much litter is disposed of on the beaches after placing the dustbins, (ii) to identify the different types of litter on the beaches and (iii) to see how much time it takes to change the behaviour of the people who use the beaches.
WHAT IS LITTER?
Litter is rubbish thrown after use as paper, cans and bottles; left lying in an open or public place like the beaches, parks or the ocean etc.
METHODOLOGY
Data collected during the audit:
• Date and time
• Audit team
• Size of the total area surveyed (with 3 sample sites) and general attributes of the area
• Characteristics of the waste collected and its weight (g)
Data extrapolated from the audit:
• Total mass of litter collected (g)
• Average mass of litter (g)/ft2 per day
• Total waste accumulated/weekly on the beach (kg)
• Total waste accumulated/daily on the beach (kg)
• Waste accumulated annually on the beach (t/year)
Estimate the area of the catchment(s) to be audited by using statistical tables to decide the sample size. Pay particular attention to prevailing environmental conditions and immediate environments. Decide the period of the audit, the longer the period the better (minimum 1 calendar week).
In Villimale’ a total of three sample sites were selected on the east beach. We choose one of the most commonly used areas of the Island. The Total area of the beach is 105400ft in length. We have chosen three sites: site 1 - 7000ft2 (the sample site includes the shoreline vegetation), site 2 - 10,000ft2 (one of the main areas used for picnics and parties), and site 3 - 10,000ft2 (lagoon side, commonly used for swimming and other water-related activities).
All the sites were first cleaned and kept without intervention for seven days. After a week, we cleaned the sites again and we did the litter audit.
This procedure will provide an average of the waste littered per day during a 7 days period.
When organising a litter audit safety is the first priority. Face masks, sanitizers, gloves and
disposable raincoats were provided to all the auditioners.
In each site was present an auditing and weighing area.
After collecting all the litter, it was segregated and noted into different categories. Then it was weighted and all the data was collected in the sheet.
CONCLUSIONS
These litter audits prove the amount of litter is decreasing after placing the dustbins on the east beach of Villimale’. From the first litter audit, when we collected 72,70kg of waste. In 2014, it decreased to 68.29kg. In 2016 the amount of litter collected was 37.90kg and in 2018 the amount of litter collected was 6.593kg. Also, it is possible to observe how the % of plastics found on the beach increased in 2018, this kind of waste is mainly washed from the Ocean and it is always found in high abundance. The high % in 2018 shows that of all the litter found only a very small part comes from the community on the Island.
To conclude, people started using the dustbins but to change the behaviours of the community a lot of work was needed. Continuous awareness programs
within the community, placing sign boards and clean-up programs contributed to decreasing the litter issue in Villimale’ island.
The improvement is that today people have forgotten how dirty the beaches were in the past years and the residents of Villimale’ are very proud of their clean beaches today.
