Solid waste assessment on the beaches of La Ceiba

Abstract

The municipality of La Ceiba in the department of Atlántida in Honduras has a great biodiversity ecosystem, being the coastal area the one that has had the greatest tourism enhancement through time. Despite the efforts invested in cleaning up the coastal landscape, the amount of solid waste that is left behind deliberately by passers-by is unknown. This results in unsuccessful efforts at the time of cleaning because there is no baseline to compare a before and after, thus knowing if there is reduction of these detritus. In this sense, the research objective is to collect and estimate the quantity in units, weight and classification of solid waste found along the coastline of the municipality of La Ceiba, in the year 2018. The novelty of this work is the quantification of solid waste in quantity, weight and type in relation to the beach visited, which is duly geo-referenced in order to locate spatially the areas that present the highest degree of environmental pollution. The methodology used in this study bases on statistical analysis, using direct measurement tools and geographic information systems. The results show the average presence of 57.64 items/m2 distributed among the 34 transects of the 12 beaches visited, with the beaches with the least pollution in weight being those of Villa Nuria, Sitramedhys and Nueva Era Este.