Spatial and temporal variations of urban litter in Mar del Plata, the major coastal city of Argentina

SECO PON JUAN PABLO; BECHERUCCI MARIA EUGENIA

WASTE MANAGEMENT (ELMSFORD)

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2012 vol. 32 p. 343 - 348

0956-053X

Urban littering is considered an important environmental and public issue globally. This problem isgrowing considerably within coastal communities of the southern region of South America. The goalsof this study were to assess (1) the abundance and composition of urban litter; (2) the spatial and temporalvariations of its abundance; and (3) the relationship between the abundance of litter and threeanthropogenic variables (i.e. abundance of pedestrians, of parked vehicles, and of trash bins) in Mardel Plata, the most populated coastal city in Argentina. Eighty-eight transects, each covering 1425 m2,were sampled along four sites from April 2008 to March 2009. Results showed 20,336 items (ca. 14 itemsper m2) of which cigarette butts (33%), papers (31%), and plastics (22%) were the most commonly littereditems. Higher amounts of litter were found in an industrial area (city?s harbor), while the abundance oflitter appeared relatively even throughout the year. Redundancy analysis techniques indicated a highabundance of all three anthropogenic variables associated with the central business district area of thecity and an area in close proximity to a major seaside resort, where cigarette butts and papers dominated.This is the first study that has examined spatial and temporal variations of urban litter in a high-densitycoastal city in Argentina. Our results showed that addressing the problems associated with urban littermust include intensive educational and advertising campaigns directed at pedestrians and owners ofparked vehicles, but waste reduction, clean-up operations and law enforcement should be alsoconsidered.