Floating Litter in Guanabara Bay: Past, Present and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The pollution of marine and coastal environments by floating litter is a serious problem around the world, usually provoked by an inefficient waste management in the coastal areas, that may generate severe impacts in the wild life, for example death by waste ingestion. The present study has the goal to analyse, under a historical retrospective and future perspective, the floating litter problem at Guanabara’s Bay. Therefore, the methodology for the historical analysis was done by a literature study. In turn, the present analysis was based on field data related to the floating litter on previous studies at the beaches of Icaraí, Charitas and São Francisco located at the city of Niterói, Flamengo beach on Rio de Janeiro and at the Mangrove of Barão de Mauá City’s Natural Park in Magé, respectively. Where samples were collected and current information about the actions related to the floating litter studied. The future perspectives were based on sanitation plans of municipalities around Guanaraba Bay that settle future goals to the pollution of it. In doing so, the results show that in spite of the public agencies efforts to depollute the Guanabara Bay, all the wastes produced by the surrounding municipalities keep reaching the estuary. It is worth mentioning that is too early to determine if these programs will be, in fact, effective and there are many different actions that need to be done including not only social awareness, but also the participation of all the social actors involved.