How plastic and other litter ends up in our waterways and what can we do about it?

By Mary Kate Hickey, Senior Communications Officer at Clean Coasts
There are lots more great stories from Clean Coasts about the amazing work of community groups, initiatives and awards via their dedicated visual content site — cleancoasts.exposure.co

An estimated 20 million metric tonnes of plastic litter end up in the environment every year. The main source of ocean pollution comes from inland litter, making up 80% of marine litter, and approximately 85% of this is plastic. (1) There are many reasons why this is the case, and to tackle this issue at the root, we need to understand it at the source.  

Where is the litter coming from?

Plastic and other litter is coming from a large variety of sources and ending up in our waterways. These sources include but, are not limited to: flushing unsuitable items down the drain; littering near beaches, lakes and rivers that flow towards our seas and oceans; stormwater runoff at storm drains; animal activity; fishing litter and much more. (2)  

Another huge cause of ocean pollution is general littering. If a bin is already full, or even unavailable, people are far more likely to drop litter where they stand rather than holding onto it to dispose of correctly at a later time. This indifference towards waste and littering has a negative effect on our marine environment down the line, when plastic and other waste ends up at sea. 

Plastics are the most common man-made objects found at sea, with an estimated 18,000 pieces of plastic litter floating on every square kilometre of the world's oceans. (3) Each year, an additional 8 million tons of plastic enters into the oceans, at a rate which is expected to double within the next 20 years. 

Items that are flushed in our toilet are also very likely to end up in our waterways. Unsuitable items containing plastics such as period products, wet wipes, cotton buds, and cigarette butts being flushed not only causes drain blockages, but can also flow to our rivers, seas and oceans and cause mass pollution there too.  

These items over time break down into microplastics in our oceans, polluting the water quality. According to a Think Before You Flush survey, a third of under 35s admit to regularly flushing unsuitable items down the toilet. (4)  

Good News!

Some good news is that a large amount of the waste littering our coasts and oceans is actually recyclable. Which means, that with proper education, support and infrastructure, much of this litter can be avoided.  

However, the lack of proper disposal leads to pollution and poisons our marine ecosystems. Littering inland contributes to this also, as litter can travel in our rivers and lakes or through storm drains to end up at our seas and oceans. 

This is the type of education we aim to pass on through our work with Clean Coasts Groups and Communities across Ireland. By engaging with people on the ground who are working towards caring for and protecting our coastlines we hope to promote more positive attitudes towards disposing of litter correctly.  

What can we do about plastic pollution?

Behaviour and attitude changes, and spreading of awareness are necessary in tackling the issue of plastic polluting our waterways. Engaging with local community groups on clean-up events and other activities help to spread the word, and lighten the load of plastic pollution in our environment. Stakeholder support, engagement and investment is also a must. Meaningful change requires collaboration across all sectors of the community. 

Governments, industries, NGOs, and local communities and individuals each play a vital role in the implementation and education of sustainable practices, and funding of clean-up and prevention initiatives. When stakeholders are actively engaged and involved at every stage, they bring diverse resources, expertise, and influence that can drive real change. 

Facing such a large issue can feel overwhelming so the best way to make a difference is for everyone to make small meaningful changes that will have a greater knock-on effect.  

Some easy things you can do to address the issue around plastic pollution yourself include:

  • Join the #2MinuteBeachClean or #2MinuteStreetClean movement to keep our coastal communities and beyond clean and green for everyone to enjoy here. 
  • Take rubbish home with you when a bin isn’t available while you’re out and about. 
  • Reduce purchases of single use plastics, and make the swap to more sustainable alternatives, such as cloth shopping bags, refillable water bottles, or reusable coffee cups.  
  • Refuse plastic products when possible and reuse these items if you can or recycle when it is not possible to refuse or reuse. 
  • Thinking Before You Flush – more info here 
  • Binning cigarette butts correctly.  
  • Fitting a filter to your washing machine or using washing bags to catch the microplastics from clothing 
  • Taking part in litter picks with your local Clean Coasts or Tidy Towns group or setting up your own if there isn’t one near you.  

Free Litter AT Project and Clean Coasts

Clean Coasts are currently working on an INTERREG Atlantic Area project called Free Litter-AT, aimed at advancing towards litter-free Atlantic coastlines. One of the main focuses of the project is the waste management of fishing gear and we are currently working with project partners in Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and France, to analyse current waste management practices, legislation relating to fishing gear, in addition to engaging coastal stakeholders in actions such as beach cleans and marine litter surveys. 

EU's Single-Use Plastics directive relating to fishing gear came into legislation on 31 December 2024. This law aims to reduce the amount of fishing gear ending up in the oceans and going to landfill, by working with the industry to establish systems for the collection and environmentally sound management of waste fishing gear.  

This is hoped to be achieved by: 

  • Implementing an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for fishing gear containing plastic. 
  • Annual reporting on the amount of fishing gear coming on and off the market.   
  • Setting a minimum annual collection rate for waste fishing gear containing plastic. 

Clean Coasts with project partners also developed an underwater marine litter survey that aims to collect information on the presence of ALDFG (abandoned, lost and otherwise discarded fishing gear) along the Irish coast.  

This information will help us: 

  • Identify common types of ALDFG and identify potential locations for pilot removal operations,   
  • Develop best practice guidelines,
  • Feed into marine litter simulation models being developed by the project,  
  • Inform policy makers on the current issues.

If you would like to participate, please:  

  1. Record and take a couple of photos of any fishing gear you spot on upcoming dives. 
  2. Upload this information to the survey here  

The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to fill out, and you can fill in as little or much information as you have about the litter. 

To find out more about Free Litter-AT please visit www.freelitterat.eu/ or contact Olivia Jones - [email protected] 

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