A new paper on marine litter on Cypriot beaches published in Springer’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
We are thrilled to announce that Xenia I. Loizidou, Michael I. Loizides and Demetra L. Orthodoxou have just published a new paper titled “Persistent marine litter: small plastics and cigarette butts remain on beaches after organized beach cleanups” in the peer reviewed journal “Environmental Monitoring and Assessment”.
The paper presents findings from cleanups that were organized over the summers of 2016 and 2017 on nine Blue Flag beaches around the island of Cyprus, after the beaches were cleaned by the responsible authorities. The aim was to answer the following questions: ‘Are regular beach cleanups by local authorities efficient?’and ‘What is left on a clean beach?’ The results suggest that local authority cleanup efforts are quite successful at collecting larger pieces of marine litter, leaving the beach seemingly clean. However, small pieces of litter, such as cigarette butts and small pieces of plastic items related to recreational activities, remain on the beach. They likely accumulate or are buried over time, with some items becoming a nuisance to beach goers and a potential source of marine litter.
You can view the paper via this link: https://rdcu.be/1iIx