Litter Remediation

Basics

• This page aims to go over the Remediation (ie Cleanup) of Litter (Most of which can also be under the umbrella of “Plastic Pollution”
• While this is not THE solution (“if you want to stop the house flooding, you must turn off the tap” etc) Single Use Plastic Alternatives / Litter Reduction Strategies etc will be discussed elsewhere!

Scope

• The Approach Depends on Location
  • Carpet-Like Heavily Maintained Turfgrass such as in Lawns or Highway Medians etc may allow for somewhat “fresh” litter to be Easily Visibly Discernible, and quickly collected by hand, with grabbers, or swept up with Brooms/Rakes and Shovels etc
  • Heavily Weathered Litter in Unmaintained Areas, or Buried underneath Soil/Vegetation is far more difficult to Visually “pick out”, and may require more careful (and time consuming) collection
  • Marine Litter is deserving of it’s own page, although in Tributaries/Streams etc, having equipment on hand when remediating “on shore” may still be of use
• Since ‘’’there is plastic in the wind and rain’’’ etc no area can TRULY be clean, but Micro/Nano-Plastic Pollution Remediation is also worth having it’s own page

Personal Experiences/Ramblings

User: Eric

Around the Shop/In the Stream Cleanup

• Finally got around to cleaning up (part of) that ditch/stream at work since most of the other busy work was done
• It’s a little stream in a semi-forested area on the property owned by work, but absolutely FILLED with trash/litter that gets washed in by the rain etc (Also some legacy litter from the site, and some recent String Trimmer debris etc)
• Density is about a Drum Liner every few square yards

Estimated Composition

• Mostly
  • Plastic Drink Bottles
  • Plastic Chip Bags
  • Plastic Cigarette/Cigarillo Holder Bits
    • Some other associated smoking debris such as Bic Lighters and Cigarette Boxes etc
  • Mini Alcohol Bottles
  • Polystyrene Foam drink cups/cooler bits
• Also some less frequent stuff like:
  • Metal Drinking Cans
  • Clothes Hangers
  • Flip Flops or other Shoes etc
  • Plastic Take Out Containers
• A Good bit of few cm square microplastic bits
• Probably plenty of PROPER M/Np Dust

Cleanup Strategy So Far

• A bit haphazard all things considered
• I did one section in the past mostly by myself
• Today was with one other person
• I had grabbed
  • A Snow Shovel/“Drywall Shovel” etc
  • Some Rakes (Conventional Metal, Rigid “Steel Rake”, a Plastic Rake (thinking i’d be a bit “softer” on highly weathered stuff etc)
  • A “Grabber”
  • Some drum liners
• It was kind of “shaded forest floor” in most spots short of a few grass/dirt patches
  • Also had some stream sections with stuff in the water etc
• Digging through twigs and whatnot took WAY longer than clean patches (or the more usual cleaning up a Beach / Parking Lot / Lawn etc)
• Also since much of the stuff was weathered to the point it was becoming part of the soil/soon to be fossil record etc that level of dirtnyness/scratched up aspects etc made some of the stuff a bit camouflaged, so it was a bit like “i spy”; the longer you looked the more you foind
• In a few hours though got maybe 5 Yards “down” the stream and a couple yards wide to a “good enough” standard of clean
  • Snobby me wants to go back on Monday/next time and clear up all the small “larger “than micro but not full bottles etc” level microplastics up, but from afar it no longer looks like an Unofficial Dumping Site ‘’’in that section’’’ which is nice

Potential Workflows

Ergonomic Manual Pickup

Overview

• Cheapest
• Can be as simple as Trash Bags and Disposable Gloves
• Lends itself well to Swarming
  • Beach Cleanups exist as a pretty good example of this
  • Plogging or something similar, ESPECIALLY if done with a School or similar group may be a good route of this as well
• Main Downside is Work-Hour Requirements, especially if low on Laborers

Equipment

• Work Gloves / Disposable Nitrile Gloves
• Basic PPE (Work Boots or at LEAST Closed Toe Shoes, Good Work Clothes, Sun Exposure Protection etc
• ”Grabbers”
• Various Rakes (Plastic Rakes, Metal Rakes, Rigid “Steel Rakes” etc)
• Shovels (Small + Snowshovel)
• Trash Bags
  • Given some of the trash may be somewhat sharp, thicker bags such as “ Drum Liners “ and/or double bagging is advisable
• Either Collapsable Trash Bags Holders or some sort or sling/backpack mount such that you don’t need to think about holding the bag open could help as well

Process

Planning

• You select+communicate what area you are clearing out and point out/make (via Survey Flags pe setting misc gear like backpacks down etc) the boundaries of that zone
• Depending on how many Sharps etc are in the area, a rigid sharps container and Cut Resistant Gloves may be warranted
• Weather Considerations + Local Wildlife Hazards (Like some Snakes, Alligators/Crocodiles, and Snapping Turtles etc)

Cleanup

• You spread out (although working together by a trash bag could reduce how many are needed and/pr how many are “in-play” ) and start cleaning up
• Try and get as much as possible, but doing a “sweep line” at the end to look for any missed pieces could be done, this could just be a 80% “rough” pass
• If it’s piled up enough you MAY be able to sweep it into shovels etc, although this method will get you more sticks/twigs “ Bycatch “ compared to picking stuff up by hand or with grabbers only

Sorting+Disposal

• If it’s an Option, Weighing the Bags can get you that metric
• It may not be relevant in all cases, or it could also be done as you go (even just informal mental notes etc) but either on top of tarps, on a concrete floor or large indoor space such as a Gymnasium etc one could spread out all the bags, then either Grab a Picture for later analysis, or even sort+count what the Average Composition of Litter is for that area (Good bit of Citizen Science + Helps inform policy decisions with hard data etc
• If using the waste for RDF or Pyrolysis / Gasification derived fuels, rinsing off dirt/draining any liquids out may be of use
• Recovered Aluminum Cans and other Metal could be recycled as well
• Short of Chemical Recycling / [Thermal Recycling]] / W2E , much of the debris is probably too weathered/dirty for direct Regrind + Reuse of thermoplastics