Durban - KwaZulu-Natal has a serious problem with plastic pollution. This is the damning finding of KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife’s and Plastics South Africa’s latest report, which found that in just one day – on September 19, which is also International Coastal Clean-up Day – more than 5 200 volunteers removed 22 871kg of rubbish from the province’s shores spanning almost 400km.
And in research recently published on five of Durban’s estuaries, microplastics were found in 77% of the fish sampled.
The province’s beach clean-up yielded 13 784 takeaway cups, plates and containers; 7 621 cigarette butts; 7 493 lids and caps; 10 112 wrappers; 11 202 tiny shards of plastic; 9 094 bottles; and 1 178 plastic knives and forks, among other items.
Fifty-one straws, 11 fireworks, 421 plastic bags and 971 cans were also found.
Last year 31 267kg of rubbish was collected, and in 2013 a whopping 34 tons was cleared.
But larger pieces of plastic were not the province’s only problems.
University of KwaZulu-Natal marine experts Gan Moodley and Dr Deborah Robertson-Andersson said in a recent statement that globally as much as 88% of the open ocean’s surface contained plastic debris, as sampled during the Malaspina Expedition – a project launched to look into the effects global changes had had on biodiversity – in 2010.
Robertson-Andersson said the university’s School of Life Sciences found in a study that in fish samples taken from Durban Harbour, Vetch’s Pier, Isipingo and the uMngeni and Mdloti river mouths, 77% of them, mainly horse mackerel ( Trachurus species) from Vetch’s Pier, contained tiny plastic fibres, fragments and beads.
Horse mackerel, more commonly known locally as maasbankers, are the ideal species to study to determine the effects on species. Because they are at the bottom of the food chain all the predators on the upper levels would accumulate plastics from their prey.
In a paper published in October this year in the Marine Pollution Bulletin (published by academic publishing company Elsevier) written by UKZN marine scientists Trishan Naidoo and David Glassom and the University of the Western Cape’s Albertus Smit, microplastics (or tiny pieces of plastic measuring less than 5mm in diameter) were a huge cause for concern.
The researchers found that most of the plastic found in the course of their study of five urban estuaries – found to be “major conduits” of pollutants to the ocean and also acting as nurseries for fish fry – in the province had been “fragmented material from the disintegration of larger plastic items, polystyrene … twine and fibres”.
These “may pose a threat to the rest of the food web, including humans (through consumption)”.
They said of the 73 estuaries in the province, 16 were in Durban, including Durban Harbour, five of which were examined, including Mdloti, Umgeni, Durban Harbour, Isipingo and Ilovu.
“Due to a large number of stormwater outfalls and rivers that drain into the harbour, we hypothesised that the plastic concentration is highest at Durban Harbour.”
Durban, they said, was also prone to pollution because of its high population and industrial wastes, typical of harbour regions.
The harbour had the highest average concentration of plastic particles per 500ml.
Litter
To deal with the litter problem in Durban, particularly at the beachfront, the city has employed close to 100 extra litter pickers, and set out more than 1 000 extra bins, and the metro police will patrol to ensure by-laws are followed as the city braces for hundreds of thousands of holiday visitors.
Municipal spokeswoman Tozi Mthethwa said Durban was ready to host the almost 1.4 million tourists expected over the next few weeks.
Over the festive period, DSW staff will work in two shifts, providing an 18-hour service. A mobile “hit team” will be deployed to the beachfront to attend to urgent complaints and will be on site daily from 7am to 4pm.
The city has also launched an anti-litter campaign over social media, encouraging beach users to spread cheer instead of rubbish.
Mthethwa said about 500 metro police officers would patrol the streets of Durban daily, in an effort to enforce by-laws and keep revellers safe.
The Mercury
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