These countries have the dirtiest coastlines

Considering a visit to the beach soon? A hotel booking may not be necessary; nearly 100 mattresses were found near coastal shorelines in 2015, according to a report released by Ocean Conservancy last month.

The mattresses are just a portion of the 14 million items of ocean debris volunteers found along 25,000 miles of coastline in nearly 100 countries during the annual International Coastal Cleanup event hosted by the advocacy group in September 2015. That averages to more than 500 pieces, or 700 pounds, of trash per mile of coastline.

A 2015 study estimated that between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, much more than 800,000 or so volunteers could collect and properly dispose of in one day.

“We can’t just focus on the cleanups. We need to make some strides upland and inland,” says Allison Schutes, senior manager of Trash Free Seas and the International Coastal Cleanup at Ocean Conservancy.

The Ocean Health Index — an assessment of how well coastal countries and regions are able to utilize and protect their ocean ecosystem in terms of 10 benefits, including clean water, tourism and biodiversity — has remained relatively unchanged in recent years.

In addition to individual behavior changes — like passing on plastic straws, the fifth-most common item collected during the cleanup — local and international policies can help with lasting change, Schutes says.

Ocean and coastal health has even recently become part of the Brexit debate. Members of the Green Alliance think tank wrote in a letter to the UK‘s environment secretary that leaving the European Union “would be damaging for Britain’s environment,” including “the quality of Britain’s beaches” and “the seas we fish in.” More conservative politicians in favor of Brexit have said the inverse.

But no one country is to blame, Schutes says. In many, waste management programs simply lack the infrastructure to keep pace with development.

The Philippines had the most volunteers participate in the cleanup this year, the first country to beat out the United States in the program’s 30-year history and a sign that, Schutes says, attention on and awareness of the issue of ocean health is growing.

The Philippines is a nation comprised of thousands of islands in the South China Sea, making resilient public infrastructure “a major structural challenge,” according to a working paper from the International Monetary Fund. Investment in the country is well below that of its regional peers, but its citizens are helping to spark change.

Just in time for World Oceans Day, here are the 10 countries with the dirtiest coastlines — be they along oceans, seas or lakes — according to data submitted by volunteers from nearly 100 countries participating in the International Coastal Cleanup.

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