Beaches in contemporary times are dominated by litter. One estimate suggests that over 9.7 million litter items populate beaches across the world’s coastlines, a figure that may well be higher now that it’s been four years since the research.
Beachgoers are constantly inundated with litter, a stark reality that not only ruins the lush, beautiful landscapes that are coastlines but can also cause harsh health and safety hazards for humans and wildlife.
A beach visitor trying to relax noticed this issue firsthand. In a TikTok post, Alexandra (@alexandrafrancisco) was reading a book on the shore before panning the camera to scattered plastic litter all across the beach. She was appalled that beachgoers could leave the beach this way.
“[There’s a] special place in hell for people who do this,” Alexandra wrote in the video caption.
Litter on land or in the oceans is directly linked to negative health impacts on humans. Microplastics and toxic chemicals can seep into human food, water, and the air supply, which recent research indicates can cause significant health issues such as cellular damage, inflammation, a disruption to immune systems and reproductive health, and even an increased risk of cancer, which can all develop from exposure to microplastics.
With the pervasiveness of litter across the planet, these health risks become all the more difficult to avoid.
Polluting the beauty of beaches can cause monetary harms too, as KIMO International reported.
Tourists are less likely to come to a degraded environment, which reduces spending in tourist-reliant communities. More money must be spent by local authorities and businesses to clean up the litter, reducing the amount of expenditures that can go towards driving the economy. Further, litter can devalue properties and damage the overall reputation of a tourist destination.
Other indirect impacts can substantially alter human quality of life. The onslaught of wildlife caught in plastic debris is a significant threat to the well-being of the ecosystem. Over one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals, turtles, and fish die annually from ingesting plastic or from entanglement, according to Fauna and Flora.
While this data is disheartening on its own, the burden it has on ecosystems that cement food chains is further disappointing.
TikTok users were just as frustrated as Alexandra.
“The fact that there are still people out there who choose to litter is insane to me,” wrote one.
Another commenter said, “That makes me want to scream from the rooftops.”
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