THE PLASTIC PLAGUE

Beachgoers spread the plastic plague that pollutes our beaches and oceans. 

Every sunny day, beachgoers leave tons of plastic waste and garbage on Brazil’s beaches, much of which is swept into the ocean by the incoming tide and waves.

Despite warnings about the dire consequences of man-made pollution, it seems that the penny has not dropped, and people continue to contribute to the burgeoning threat to the environment and human health. 

This is part of the trash collected by me on 27/04/2025 along the water’s edge of just 1/3 of Ipanema beach. It shows a predominance of clear plastic and polystyrene and is typical of what beachgoers just discard on the sand. Uncollected, all of this would have been swept into the sea by the incoming tide. In the ocean, polystyrene food containers break down into micro particles and end up in the marine food chain, being absorbed by fish and thus ultimately by humans.

See the April 8th, 2025, Press Release by OCEANA: “Toxic Takeout? Your Food Containers Could Be Putting Your Health at Risk”.  https://usa.oceana.org/press-releases/toxic-takeout-your-foam-food-containers-could-be-putting-your-health-at-risk/

Oceana released a new report, “Plastic Foam Needs ‘To Go,'” revealing the dangers behind single-use plastic foam products like clamshell takeout food containers, cups, packing peanuts, and disposable coolers. According to the report, plastic foam, which is also called expanded polystyrene, compromises our health and our oceans. 

Plastic foam is made with hazardous chemicals, like its main building block styrene, which is toxic to the human nervous system. Styrene is linked to cancer and considered a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Styrene and other chemicals can easily leach into food and beverages at all temperatures, but hotter temperatures heighten the risk. 

Food and drinks containing high levels of fat also increase the leaching of styrene and other chemicals. This raises the question: are foam takeout containers and cups risking our health? The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends that parents avoid giving their children plastic products made of polystyrene, which includes plastic foam. Adding to the concern, tiny pieces of polystyrene microplastic have been found in our bodies, including the brain, blood, lungs, kidneys, and reproductive systems. 

 LOCAL BEACHGOERS AND TOURISTS CONTINUE TO TRASH IPANEMA BEACH

NOTHING HAS CHANGED. MANY PEOPLE SHOW NO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS, EVEN DESPITE THE CLIMATE CRISIS CAUSED BY MAN'S IGNORANCE.  

I started plogging along the water's edge on Ipanema Beach in 2010 and in the 14 years of collecting plastic trash, beer bottles, dirty nappies, sanitary towels, take-away food boxes, biscuit wrappers, plastic bags and assorted garbage since then, I have seen little or no improvement in beachgoers' behaviour and environmental consciousness. In fact, the trashing of Ipanmea beach has just got worse.  

On 19/01/2025, the beach was jam-packed with people and there were volumes of trash on the sand between their beach chairs, next to the water's edge. Most of this trash would have been left there and swept into the ocean by the rising tide and waves. These are the scenes that met my eyes. 

In fact, there was so much trash that it would have taken me 4 hours to collect the trash on  just ⅓ of Ipanema Beach. It was demoralising and I just managed to collect 2 plastic bags of trash along a 5-metre stretch. See the photo below.

Just in front of Arpoador Rocks, on another 5-metre stretch, I managed to collect this grey bag of trash. There was just too much trash to collect.  So, I went up on to the rocks and collected trash there instead. 

See this video filmed by Nicolas Mandri-Perrot, when he interviewed me about my plogging.

SEE THIS PHOTO PUBLISHED IN AN ARTICLE IN GLOBO BY  

ANNA BUSTAMANTE

 — Rio de Janeiro

06/01/2025 13h43

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 ARPOADOR ROCKS IN IPANEMA - BREEDING GROUND FOR THE DENGUE MOSQUITO

In the middle of a full-blown Dengue epidemic in Brazil, people continue to leave used plastic cups, beverage cans, plastic bags and takeaway food containers in the bushes, cacti and on the rocks at Arpoador.

 A favourite spot for people to gather and watch the sunset, Arpoador is a breeding ground for Aedes Aegypti, the mosquito that transmits Dengue. Rain water collecting in the plastic trash provides a perfect environment for the mosquito to leave its larvae.

Heedless of the consequences, people continue to carelessly leave their trash at Arpoador. Compare the photo taken in 2015 with that taken in  2024. What has changed? When will we ever learn?

The last photo is of the plastic trash and garbage that I collected on just a small part of Arpoador Rocks on 19/01/2025. The litter includes plastic cups, polystyrene food containers, beverage cans and biscuit wrappers. 

The large orange metal skip in the background is provided by the municipal garbage authority for litter collection but is not even half full. All people have to do is throw their trash in it to avoid creating a mosquito larvae breeding ground. The problem is laziness and ignorance. The solution is to dispose of your trash in the proper litter wheelie bins and skips.

SUSPENSION OF BEACH PLOGGING FOR ORTHOPAEDIC REASONS

UNFORTUNATELY, MY ENVIRONMENTALISM HAS TAKEN ITS TOLL PHYSICALLY. 

I WAS FORCED TO SUSPEND PLOGGING ON IPANEMA BEACH IN MARCH 2024, DUE TO TO BACK PAIN,  TENDONITIS, TENOSYNOVITIS AND CARPAL TUNNEL SYDROME CAUSED BY STOOPING TO PICK UP TRASH AND CARRYING AND LIFTING HEAVY BAGS OF PLASTIC TRASH, BOTTLES AND GARBAGE LEFT BY CARELESS BEACHGOERS ALONG THE SHORELINE AND WATER'S EDGE.

A soon as my orthopaedic condition  improves, I hope to return to beach plogging as I fear that very little is being done to reduce the trashing of Ipanema Beach. 

Alarmed by the never-ending environmental threat of the hundreds of kilos of trash left by negligent beachgoers along the water's edge on Ipanema Beach, I started plogging in 2010. However, in the ensuing 14 years of plogging, I have seen little or no improvement in this careless behviour. 

This is the sort of plastic trash and garbage left by beachgoers in the tidal zone. If such trash is not properly collected and placed in the wheelie bins, it is swept into the ocean by the waves and incoming tide.  All of the trash seen in these photos was collected by me and properly placed in the municipal wheelie bins for disposal by the municipal garbage collectors.

 

This is the sort of scene that meets the eye at the end of the day on Ipanema Beach. I collected and disposed of all the plastic trash seen in the following photo.

WE CANNOT GO ON TRASHING OUR BEACHES LIKE THIS. 

FACED WITH GLOBAL WARMING, THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND DESTRUCTION OF THE MARINE  ENVIRONMENT, IT IS INCONCEIVABLE THAT WE CONTINUE TO BEHAVE SO IRRESPONSIBLY. 

WHAT IS NEEDED IS A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO PERSUADE PEOPLE TO RESPECT THE BEACH AND MARINE ENVIRONMENT AND TO STOP SIMPLY DISCARDING THEIR PLASTIC WASTE AND GARBAGE UPON THE SANDS. MORE WHEELIE BINS ARE NEEDED TO TAKE THE EVER-GROWING VOLUME OF PLASTIC WASTE AND GARBAGE. PLASTIC WASTE AND GARBAGE HAS TO BE CORRECTLY RECYCLED AND DISPOSED OF WITHOUT FURTHER DAMAGE TO  ECOSYSTEMS.

 JUNE 5TH IS WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY. 

IT IS A DAY WHEN WE SHOULD REMEMBER JUST HOW PRECIOUS OUR NATURAL ENVIRONMENT IS AND HOW WE SHOULD ALL STRIVE TO PRESERVE IT.

Our natural environment is not just something outside of us. We act as if we were separate from it and had the unquestioned right to do with it as we please. Therein lies the problem. We are part of it and everything we do do to the Earth, we do to ourselves. We are just part of the tapestry of life.

The Covid-19 Pandemic forced me to suspend my beach plogging in February 2021, for fear of infection. When cleanning up the mess of plastic and garbage people leave along the water's edge and shoreline, I get exposed to the mucous, saliva and fluids that people leave in their plastic bottles, cups and food wrappings on the sands. They also leave dirty nappies, sanitary towels and even condoms on the sand. The sand is packed cheek by jowl with people on the weekends and so avoiding closely packed crowds is an impossibility and thus presents a definite infection risk in the pandemic.

I feel an urgent need to return to my beach plogging because I fear that people have learned little about the need to preserve the beach and the marine environment.  I fear that they have not changed their habits and continue with their selfish littering of the beach. 

I am trying to build up the courage to return to my beach plogging because our environment sorely needs people to defend it. Even the little that I can do on my own helps. I reckon that since I started beach plogging in Ipanema in 2010, I must have removed over a ton of plastic trash, bottles and garbage from along the shoreline.

The following is a video made by Nicolas Mandri-Perrott, when he interviewed me about my beach plogging. His email: nmandri@gmail.com. His site: www.3c-films.com. Nicolas Mandri 3C Films.

https://youtu.be/Z-tZ4pAhZ0Y

THE TRASHING OF IPANEMA BEACH

THE TRASHING OF IPANEMA BEACH - IGNORANCE AND SELFISHNESS ARE DESTROYING THIS ONCE IDYLLIC SPOT

Ipanema beach must be one of the most beautiful beaches to be found in an urban setting anywhere in the world. Its renowned sunset over the sea at the foot of the Dois Irmãos Mountains attracts sightseers and photographers. 

Sadly, this beauty is marred by the ignorance and selfishness of those who leave hundreds of kilos of plastic trash, bottles and garbage on the sands and right on the shoreline every day. 

This pile of about 60 kilos of trash, bottles and garbage left on or near the shoreline would have been swept into the sea before the municipal garbage collectors could have got it. It is the result of my single-handed collection from only one quarter of the beach on 09/02/2020, before I had to stop beach plogging because of the Pandemic. 

THE ROAD TO SELF-DESTRUCTION - CARELESS POLLUTION OF THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

Oceans Will Have More Plastic Than Fish By 2050, Study Says

The above is the title of an article by Melissa Chan in the January 19th, 2016 edition of TIME. 

See the accompanying video and article at  https://time.com/4186250/ocean-plastic-fish/

In the 10 years that I have been single-handedly cleaning up Ipanema Beach along the water's edge and in the tidal zone,  I have seen little or no improvement in the careless behaviour of beachgoers as they leave or discard their plastic trash and garbage on the sands. The trash and garbage left so negligently are swept into the sea by the waves and incoming tide. This is the result of plastic pollution in the oceans:

thegreatcoursesdaily.com

Need I say more?