Israeli Shoreline Polluted With Over 2 Million Tons of Microplastics

A new Tel Aviv University study, conducted in collaboration with Israel's Mediterranean Sea Research Center, looked at the level of microplastic pollution along Israel's coastline.

From Haifa to Ashkelon, the researchers collected sand samples from six beaches.

The study found that the Israeli shoreline is contaminated with more than two million tons of microplastics, with Tel Aviv and Hadera beaches being the most polluted.

Israeli coastline is contaminated with over two tons of microplastics

(Photo : Nick Fewings/Unsplash)

In light of these troubling findings, the researchers warn that microplastic waste exposure is unavoidable. It should be noted that microplastics have generally been proven to be hazardous to both the environment and human health, as per ScienceDaily.

Doctoral student Andrey Ethan Rubin and master's student Limor Omeysi from Dr. Ines Zucker's laboratory at the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering and the Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences led the research. The findings were published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

According to Rubin, the researchers collected samples from six locations along the coast in 2021: Ashkelon, Rishon LeZion, Tel Aviv, Hadera, Dor Beach, and Haifa.

The samples were then taken to the laboratory for analysis, which included particle count, mass measurements, image analysis, and chemical analysis to determine the polymer of the plastic as well as the elements adsorbed onto the microplastic particles.

The researchers discovered that the samples contained plastic from food packaging, single-use plastic products, and fishing nets, among other things.

According to Rubin, it was interesting to see that plastics of terrestrial origin, such as food packaging, were more prevalent than plastics of marine origin, such as fishing nets.

According to the study's findings, the beaches of Tel Aviv and Hadera were the most polluted of the beaches tested.

The contamination level on these beaches near stream estuaries (the Yarkon in Tel Aviv and Nahal Alexander in Hadera) was four times higher than on Rishon Lezion and Dor Beach, which had the lowest concentration of microplastic particles.

Even in the Dor Beach nature reserve, which is cleaned regularly, a significant amount of microplastic particles were discovered.

According to the researchers, the high level of pollution on Tel Aviv and Hadera beaches, as well as their proximity to streams, indicates that the stream's waters carry microplastic particles into the sea, amplifying the level of contamination on the beach.

The researchers, for example, claim that Nahal Alexander collects leachate from untreated sewage in the West Bank, as well as waste from agricultural and industrial areas near riverbeds. Similarly, microplastics from Tel Aviv's industrial centers accumulate in the Yarkon River.

The world's plastic pollution crisis explained

Plastic pollution has emerged as one of the most pressing environmental issues, as the world's ability to deal with it has been overwhelmed by the rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products, as per National Geographic.

Plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian and African countries, where waste collection systems are frequently ineffective or nonexistent.

However, the developed world, particularly in countries with low recycling rates, has difficulty collecting discarded plastics.

Plastic trash has become so pervasive that efforts have been made by the United Nations to draft a global treaty.

Plastics derived from fossil fuels have been around for a little over a century.

After WWII, the production and development of thousands of new plastic products accelerated, transforming the modern era to the point where life without plastics would be unrecognizable today.

Plastics revolutionized medicine with life-saving devices, enabled space travel, lightened cars, and jets, saved fuel and pollution, and saved lives with helmets, incubators, and clean drinking water equipment.

The conveniences that plastics provide, however, have resulted in a throw-away culture that reveals the material's dark side: single-use plastics now account for 40% of all plastic produced each year.

Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, have a short lifespan but can persist in the environment for hundreds of years.