Most of the waste items were plastic bottles, mainly PET bottles. There were also many beer cans. Drinks packaging were clearly the most important source of waste.
The hotels were cleaning in ‘front of their door’ almost every morning. They had to do it for the comfort of the tourists. There was a financial incentive to do it because filthy beaches lead to no tourism.
The Tunisian government was doing, to quote John McEnroe,…. fuck all, nothing, nada.
Local Source of plastic pollution
The waste had a local source; mainly due to littering on the (neighbouring) beaches. Mostly from Tunisian themselves. All packaging items were Arab (brands).
The waste came from :
(1) the sea; from other Tunisian beaches.
(2) the beach itself, ‘local’ (Tunisian) tourists leaving their trash on the beaches. Western tourists stayed at hotels and resorts and didn’t walk with packaging and did not consume food on the open beaches.
(3) in the evening, local Tunisians came to the beaches with their friends to smoke and drink beer (lots of local beer cans). Drinking alcohol is Haram (forbidden by Islamic law) so local Tunisians have to do it on the beaches to avoid social stigma.
Conclusion
Littering is one of the most important factor of plastic waste pollution. People leave their trash behind.
There’s no technology to solve littering. The only solution is education. People have to be educated to throw their trash in the bins.
Let me re-phrase this: there’s a cultural element to littering. Some cultures do it more than others.
Japanese people clean up their waste wherever they go. Japan is a mega clean country. No litter in the streets.
The Arab culture is on the other side of the cleavage. Arabs litter a lot. We see this in Brussels too. Areas with high Arab population are the dirtiest with the highest amount of litter
Solution to Hammamet coastal plastic pollution
Tunisian government should start cleaning up the beaches. Hotels are doing their fair part, but the beach areas outside the hotel zones remain dirty.
Place trash bins and empty them daily.
Start educating the local population not to litter.
Start using repressive means to stop the littering.
Ask how the Japanese did it.
Plastic pollution on Hammamet
Hotel Personnel cleaning the plastic waste
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