Quantification and Composition of Solid waste abundance on the beaches of Karachi, Pakistan

The problem of the marine pollutants accumulation and its serious consequence leads dangerous to marine life, possess risk to human health, disturb marine activities like fishing and other uses of sea water, indulged scientists around the whole world with no easy solution in the coming years. The situation is now getting worst with the plastic which contribute 80% of the total solid waste in all the beaches provides ideal environment for the opportunistic microorganism to grow and establish a novel means of spatial and temporal transport for microorganisms diagonally coastal areas. This work contained baseline study of abundance, composition and nature of the solid waste on the beaches of Karachi, Pakistan which was investigated by quadrates method along the shoreline. During the study plastic litter identified 80% in proportion among all the beaches debris. The abundance of debris by weight was higher in Clifton followed by sandspit and Ghizri creek respectively. Thermocol / Styrofoam recoded as the second largest contributor of marine debris. The major contributing factor of debris abundance are beach visitors such as tourism, recreation activities, land based sources including waste generated from creeks provide a major input of pollution in beaches. Current world environment Journal Website: www.cwejournal.org ISSN: 0973-4929, Vol. 13, No. (2) 2018, Pg. 232-241