Assessment of beach litter pollution in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco: a study of macro and meso-litter on Mediterranean beaches

Abstract

We conducted surveys of Mediterranean beaches in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia including 37 macro-litter (> 25 mm) and 41 meso-litter (5–25 mm) assessments. Our study identified key litter items and assessed pollution sources on urban, semi-urban, tourist, and semi-rural beaches. Macro-litter concentration averaged 5032 ± 4919 pieces per 100 m or 1.71 ± 2.28 pieces/m², with higher values observed on urban (mean 2.63 pieces/m² ± 3.03) and tourist (mean 1.23 pieces/m² ± 0.91) beaches. Similarly, urban (mean 9.91 pieces/m² ± 12.70) and tourist beaches (mean 5.32 pieces/m² ± 4.48) revealed elevated levels of meso-litter contamination, particularly in the upper third of the beach, which contained the highest quantities both in terms of number (51%) and weight (50%). 55% of the macro-litter and 35% of the meso-litter originated from human shoreline activities and poor waste management. Given the width of some beaches and their high levels of pollution, the standard 100 m macro-litter approach was impractical. To enable cost-effective, long-term monitoring, we adapted it to a faster 10 m transect approach, which provided reliable data on the top 25 litter items, accounting for 82% of beach pollution. Our Sand Rake method effectively quantified pollution on both cleaned and uncleaned beaches, addressing the often neglected meso-litter size fraction. The high pollution levels, top litter items, and identified sources indicate that beach cleaning alone will not solve the pollution problem. Efforts to raise environmental awareness, enhanced waste management, and law enforcement are needed to improve the situation in a sustainable way.