Successfully building a process to monitor beach plastic waste

Chairwoman MSc. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong and colleagues in the laboratory and in the field

The plastic pollution problem

Plastic waste is an emerging pollutant, difficult to decompose in the environment, an intermediate material that spreads pollutants, widely distributed and present almost everywhere in the world, in water and sediment environments, large rivers, polar ice sheets of the earth's crust, protected areas and remote archipelagos. Recent studies have proven that plastic waste has a negative impact on the ecosystem and human health. This is the means of transporting foreign species and pathogenic microorganisms, entering the food chain and spreading throughout the marine environment. A large number of marine species are seriously affected by plastic waste.

Plastic waste kills seabirds (Source: Internet)

Plastic waste pollution in the marine environment is one of the major concerns today globally, a threat to sustainable development, causing negative impacts on the water environment and aquatic ecosystems, economy, human health.

Vietnam is currently the country with the fourth largest amount of plastic waste discharged into the marine environment in the world after China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Plastic waste is increasing in density, covering an increasingly wide area in our country's coastal areas, causing loss of aesthetics of coastal areas and beaches, causing ecological imbalance, shrinking breeding ground and environment for some native species, creating a growth environment for alien organisms and microorganisms. Faced with the serious pollution caused by plastic waste, collecting information and data reflecting the current situation of plastic waste in coastal areas is very necessary.

Evaluation research

MSc. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong and her colleagues proposed and were approved by the VAST to carry out the project: "Assessing the level of plastic waste accumulation at Thanh Hoa province's beaches" (code: VAST06.03/20-21).

Within the framework of the research, scientists developed a process for monitoring large-sized plastic waste (>5mm) at beaches, monitoring microplastics in estuarine water and seawater, and monitoring microplastics in estuarine sediments, beach sediments. At the same time, the team assessed the level of large-scale waste accumulation at three beaches: Sam Son, Hai Tien, Hai Hoa through quantity and density. The group classified large plastic waste by item and polymer properties, thereby determining the origin of the trash on the beach. Next, researchers determined the concentration of microplastics present in the water environment and sediment of Sam Son, Hai Tien, Hai Hoa beaches and Cua Hoi area, Thanh Hoa province; classified microplastics by size, color, and shape, thereby determining the origin of microplastics and ecological risks to aquatic ecosystems.

Plastic waste on the beaches of Thanh Hoa province

Calculating the CCI index to evaluate beach cleanliness in Thanh Hoa province showed that most beaches are classified as average clean to dirty. During the tourist season, beaches have a higher CCI index than during the off-season. From the research results, a number of solutions to reduce large-sized plastic waste and microplastic pollution on beaches, water and sediment environments suitable to the practical conditions of Thanh Hoa province were proposed.

MSc. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong said that monitoring and supervising plastic waste needs to be carried out periodically and continuously to provide data for policymakers at the central and local levels with an overall picture related to the plastic waste entering the marine environment. Furthermore, it is necessary to develop Vietnam's technical guidance on plastic waste monitoring in local areas, helping relevant agencies at all levels to periodically monitor the implementation of plastic waste policies. Scientists also hope to have more surveys to evaluate the impact of tourism and service activities on the level of plastic waste accumulation in the coastal environment of Thanh Hoa province, as a scientific basis for relevant functional units to have appropriate solutions to minimize the source of waste entering the local marine environment.

Translated by Phuong Huyen
Link to Vietnamese version