The Green Clean

Values of the beach

Coastal ecosystems both have monetary as well as non-monetary values. Both of these values will be elaborated on on the following page

Money flow

Value has many different meanings that are important to cover in order to understand the need for the project and how our solutions can be implemented. On one hand, there is the financial, and monetary aspect of value. This aspect pertains to the various financial transactions and flows between the different parties and stakeholders with regard to beach cleaning, as well as determining the costs and benefits associated with different waste management strategies. On the other hand, there are non-tangible values that influence public perception, such as the emotional, cultural, and societal value of beaches and coastal ecosystems. Last but not least, there are also environmental services and values which can have different financial impacts, particularly in the long term.

The municipality is the biggest investor in beach cleaning, but the beach owner is the central government. The municipalities receive subsidies from the central government per surface area of the beach. Plans to improve biodiversity often have the potential to have a negative impact on the touristic appeal of beaches, making them unappreciated by municipalities and thus difficult to implement.

The municipalities themselves do not perform the most significant part of the cleaning. They hire companies that do it for them. The companies get contracts with goals set by the municipality and a budget. So, if the material needs to change, the companies pay for that change. There are three stakeholders that have to be convinced or pressured into changing, in order to change the system. On the smallest scale, there are the companies and charities, then secondly the municipalities and on the largest scale, the central government can make legislation and exert power over the municipality.

Municipalities hire companies to do the cleaning for them

Source: loonbedrijfhoogland.nl

Volunteers help keep the cost of manual labour down

Source: noordzee.nl

Costs

One important aspect is the cost of the actual cleaning. Mechanical cleaning can cost beach cleaning companies 2.200 to 8.300 euros per kilometer of beach per year. When the beach is cleaned more often the costs per cleaning activity go down, while when it is only done once a year these costs will go up.

When chosen for manual cleaning, a few things need to be taken into account. Cleaning is more labour-intensive and time-consuming than mechanical cleaning. This can result in higher costs. However, the costs for cleaning manually vary highly depending on factors like beach size and the labour force needed.

Another approach is to just prevent the litter from ending up on the beach at all. This can be achieved in several ways. Examples can be education, but also no-smoking zones, more bins, and emptying these bins more often. The benefit of these types of campaigns is that they can cost as little or as much as municipalities are willing to pay.

Intrinsic and extrinsic value

Beaches encompass many different values. On one hand, there are extrinsic values relating to aesthetics, emotion, the economy, and the environment, seen from a human perspective, and on the other hand, the intrinsic, ethical values seen from a non-human perspective. These values are therefore not only financial. The many layers of nature preservation zones that cover the Dutch beaches and coastline prove that the government and society recognise an intrinsic, ethical value to protecting the environment. This can also be influenced from a human perspective by society's appreciation of the aesthetic value of the beaches, and an emotional need to maintain them. Unspoiled beaches are highly valued and due to the way they attract visitors, can also bring about financial value.

There are also environmental services provided by these beaches that have implications for humans. Supporting the natural ecosystems bolsters wildlife and fosters healthy dune development which protects human settlements against extreme weather and can serve as flood protection. Making coastal communities less vulnerable is also a financial value as it helps protect homes and businesses from climate change, making insurance and mortgages more secure. As all biodiversity is interconnected, preserving biodiversity on the beaches is also a positive for migrating avian species and marine life, which transcends man-made borders. Healthy marine life also supports local economies relying on sectors such as fishing.

All these different types of values are incorporated into the five potential values for environmental resources (the five E's), as can be seen in the figure to the right. On the left side of the image, anthropocentric values are stated, which are values created by humans. These include the esthetic, emotional, and economic values, as well as the environmental services of beaches. On the right side of the image, ecocentric values are stated, which are values all living and non-living resources have on their own, independent of human opinion.

Beaches as an environmental service - coastal protection

Source: serc.carleton.edu

Diagram showing the difference between the classification of extrinsic and intrinsic values

Source: van den Nieuwenhof-Schilstra, 2022

Example of participation with local municipality

Source: Centre of expertise Smart Sustainable Cities

Project timeframe

Once the tool results from this research, it can be immediately passed on to the client to use in discussions and agreements with municipalities. For certain beaches that are simpler cases, the agreement may be formed quicker whereas for other beaches that are busier and where completely ending mechanical cleaning is not an option, the process will take longer. On quieter beaches, agreements can take between several months to a year to reach, and on busier beaches, it would likely take over a year as there are many stakeholders such as local residents, businesses, and the tourism industry to take into account and a public consultation may be necessary. Since a 100% ecological solution is unlikely to be implemented due to these trade-offs, the regeneration process would also be slower.

The duration regeneration process is difficult to estimate as it is a process that is constantly evolving and depends on many additional factors to cleaning methods. Projects already implemented by Het Groene Strand have already shown positive results and embryonal dune development within just one year. Extrapolating these results to the other eventual cases and adding up the different time periods of reaching agreements, implementation, monitoring, and natural regeneration, we can suggest a project timeframe of roughly 5 years from the start to the meeting of targets.

Page updated

Report abuse