LITTER ON THE ISRAELI COASTLINE

Counts of litter pieces which were conducted on six beaches in Israel at approximately monthly intervals showed that the overall mean was 36.77 pieces of litter per 5-m-wide beach transect. More than 70% of the litter was plastic and the remaining litter was made up of wood, metal, glass and other materials. The results indicate that the litter pollution level is related to the distance of a beach from a population center. During winter litter pollution is reduced due to storm waves which carry it landward. Clean-up operations during summer help reduce litter on the beach but only for a few weeks. The nature of the litter components (containers of food, beverages and cosmetics, plastic bags, garments, foam rubber mattresses and toys) indicates that most of the litter is left by beach-goers. This impression is supported by the lack of remnants of fishing nets and large food containers and by the scarcity of containers of lavatory cleansers and household cleaners. This is in contrast to findings on the eastern shores of the Atlantic where used containers of household cleansers discarded from ships constituted the most abundant item of coastal litter.