Talk:Beach cleaning

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 14 January 2020 and 30 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Bbakkal, Lmellen, I Have No Authority. Peer reviewers: Rnakovsk, James Iversen, Jkwasser, Obee14, Anmramir, Brmbuck, Gheraly.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 17:53, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Suggestions

This article has a lot of great content. It lays out the elements of the problem, solutions, and other information quite clearly. While wonderful recommendations have been provided that make a lot of sense given the context of the issue, I’m not sure if it is appropriate to include one’s own synthesis of other people’s ideas. Several sources are cited for these recommendations as supporting evidence for the recommendation, but the recommendations themselves seem to be original ideas of the posters, which is not appropriate if that is the case. If the recommendations do come from scholarly sources, then the posters should make that more comprehensible. The maps and images that were added are highly relevant and do a lot to heighten the depth of the article. Spelling and grammar need to be checked as I spotted several errors on a quick read through the article. Overall, the posters have done a good job. Peamarsh (talk) 22:59, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

The article is a good introduction to the topic of beach cleaning; however, the writing needs some improvement. In terms of the main content, there is only one paragraph in the lead section on the causes/sources of beach debris. I'd suggest adding a section specifically on the causes/sources of beach debris in the main section. This will allow you to delve into the inherent complexity of the problem. For example, who’s responsibility is it to clean up beaches – the people who live there, the industries that pollute the oceans, cruise ships? How can the true source be determined and held liable? Furthermore, it is somewhat confusing that tourism is included as a "benefit". You briefly mention that beach users are a major cause/source of beach debris in the lead section but do not expand on this sufficiently. Tourism is obviously going to be a complicated topic for beach cleanliness, so I would suggest complicating this topic in the article. Lastly, are you sure that “not much has been assessed about the physical impact of tourism on beaches”? Jkwasser (talk) 19:13, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

I find this topic to be very interesting and important for the future. The safety of beaches from garbage and various dangers is something that I think gets overshadowed when there are efforts for maintaining clean waters are addressed. I think this article did an adequate job of covering a lot of the ground in regards to beach cleaning. There is good information in there that is very insightful. There were a couple of grammar errors, but overall the article was clean and did not have any glaring issues. There were a couple of repeat headings named “conclusion”. If there was a way to rename that section, I think that would improve the flow of the page. The topics and section headings, in general, were good and covered a lot of information. I don’t think there is anything that needs to be added or taken away in that regard. I’m not sure what this article’s condition was in before it was edited, but it is looking like it is really coming together nicely and I am excited to see how it develops over the course of the next few weeks. Good job! AbbringAustin (talk) 00:42, 1 March 2020 (UTC)

This article was very informative and I learned more about the benefits of beach cleaning and some methods on how to mitigate this issue. With my contribution, I just wanted to present more proactive approaches to beach clean ups from a government level instead of induvial or community level. I talked about a couple of laws to help this issue and these laws have different intents and provisions that you guys can talk more about in your next entry. However, if you guys want to stick to reactive methods on mitigating beach waste, look up 4Oceans or an organization like that. Lastly, if you want to do a case study, check out the beaches in India and see what they are doing to try and clean up their beaches. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lfabina (talk • contribs)15:12, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

The "Sources of Beach Debris" section appears to be empty, perhaps add a bit to that section. In the "Beach cleaning methods" section, perhaps consider breaking the methods down into their own sub-sections. Overall, I found this to be a pretty well-developed article. It was neat that many of the studies cited throughout the article were conducted within the last two decades, lending to how recent the research is. I suppose something that I might want to see added is whether or not there are advancements being made regarding mechanical cleaning, specifically if anything is being done to combat the drawbacks that currently plague that method, as was mentioned in the article.--Brmbuck (talk) 20:12, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Overall, this article was informative and interesting. Almost all topics that are intrinsic to beach cleaning are represented well. There are some grammatical errors like starting sentences with "also," and "so," which could be replaced with terms like "in addition" and "therefore." The "sources of beach debris" will add quite a bit to this article, especially because this is mentioned in the introduction. When it is added, be sure to include at least the four sources mentioned earlier. The "ecology" section could be expanded on a bit, as this is possibly the area that is impacted the most severely. I think it would be important to include information on the impact of microplastics in marine ecosystems, as this is a long-lasting effect that beach debris have on the ocean. The “public engagement” section was well-written, but could benefit from the addition of ways to encourage the public to participate in beach cleaning. You guys have an extensive amount of reputable sources as well. So far, this is a nicely done article! Gheraly (talk) 22:11, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

I think this article has a lot of good elements but there are some sentences in this article that are redundant and kind of repetitive. The conclusion section is not necessary. Wikipedia pages are not meant to have arguments so it can/should be deleted. I think the public engagement and public health sections could use some expansion. For the public engagement section, you could include various organizations or maybe even some regulations put in place by certain governments about beach litter. Also it might be worthwhile to look into the huge public beaches in places like Florida or Los Angeles and how they maintain their levels of cleanliness/reports by them on their beach cleaning protocol Obee14 (talk) 00:08, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

One topic that would be interesting to include is Green Washing and all the companies who partake in it in these regards. The company "4 oceans" is notorious for selling their bracelets on the slogan "for every bracelet bought 1 lbs of plastic is removed from the ocean". While this is cool that they are doing ocean cleanup, this isn't really making that big of a difference because it isn't stopping anything even close to the source. There are several companies like this that could be useful to include! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shaymaranke (talk • contribs) 01:33, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

Discussion about the types of animals who are affected by this beach cleaning would be another good subsection. Animals like turtles, crabs, and sting rays are often mostly affected when it comes to shoreline ocean pollution because so much trash accumulates there and that is their home. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Shaymaranke (talk • contribs) 01:49, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

I thought that this was an interesting article. There were a few opportunities for First, I think that my biggest recommendation would be to write a section to put under “Sources of Beach Debris” because there is currently nothing in this section. This is a great opportunity for development and I think it would greatly add to the article. I would recommend adding this section for the next assignment and building out the causes behind those sources. You have the opportunity to discuss some of the impacts of our consumption habits and more specifically our waste habits. Additionally, I think that the section about Beach Cleaning Methods could be included within the broader section of Public Engagement and Beach Cleaning, this makes structural sense and could help read better. These sections work well together and I believe it would be beneficial for the piece. I enjoyed learning about beach cleaning and feel that it is a very relevant topic that is important to have within Wikipedia. Eb20 (talk) 03:16, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

This page was definitely well written and the updated content seems very relevant and useful to the article. I edited the introduction of the article to streamline the information and get the most important information to the reader immediately. I also increased the picture size and added extended captions which include the location and dates of the images. In regards to advice, I only have two suggestions I implore you to make. Firstly, break up the "The Causes and Sources of Marine Debris" to have subtitles like the other sections. You can definitely break this section down into 2 or 3 smaller, more comprehendible sections. Lastly, I think the introduction has to outline the article to a better extent. For instance, you did a great job outlining the causes of beach debris but did not say the main benefits that come with cleaning the debris up in the intro. Overall, I found it relatively hard to give you solid advice on how to improve this article because the quality of this page is very good. You did a great job editing this article and after you make a few small tweaks, I believe this page will be phenomenal. In addition, I set up a talk page between me and the user Lmellen, where I go into depth about the article. Feel free to check that out. Well done! James Iversen (talk) 02:00, 27 March 2020 (UTC)jiversen

I think this article is coming along really nicely. It looks like it has really grown and developed since the last time I checked it. There have been more images added which makes the article look even more appealing. I like the different sections. They seem to be appropriate and contribute to the flow of the article. I think the list of the most polluted beaches is effective, as is the recommendations section that you all have added. That is a good way of communicating what is important and where resources should be concentrated. Overall, nice work! Everything appears to be coming together nicely. AbbringAustin (talk) 22:06, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

I really enjoyed reading topics in this article. I am a public health major and loved that there was discussion about how it affects the public health, but I do think more information could be added if possible. It also says the benefits of beach cleaning to human health, but it talks about the negatives about beach pollution to human health. That could possible be edited. Overall, the information is informative and interesting. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ahdelgad (talk • contribs) 20:31, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

The first thing I noticed reviewing this article is that it is much more fleshed out and substantive than the last time that I read it, so good job on that! Something new that was added that I think is highly useful is the section on the most polluted and the cleanest beaches. My primary interest being biodiversity, I think its really neat that the "Environmental Concerns" section talks about how beach cleaning impacts the biodiversity of coastal areas. Something that I think would benefit expanding on is the "Public Health" Portion of the article. If any are available, perhaps find statistics to include that would demonstrate the importance of clean beaches to physical safety. Brmbuck (talk) 01:11, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

I think this article is very interesting and catches my eye. I find this article to cover many topics and issues related to marine life and cleaning. While the overall content of the page is great, I do think there are a few minor adjustments and additions that can be made to make the page more presentable. I think that the expansion of public health section would go a long way. I also think that the addition of some costs and benefits, ultimately a small section discussing the economics behind the process, would help make the page more solidified. Rnakovsk (talk) 22:26, 8 April 2020 (UTC)

Elaborate on fishing plastic

In the section describing the causes of ocean plastic I think elaborating more on fishing plastic could be goo and how overfishing is connected to both plastic fishing gear disposal, and the bioaccumulation of microplastics. Due to the nature of microplastics (often from chemicals and synthetic fabrics) the accumulate in fish and other marine animals. When a large fish eats a smaller fish which eats and smaller fish and so forth, plastic accumulates and can further damage beaches as well as people who might eat these animals.

It might be good to include a seperate section talking specifically about fishing practices and their contribution to beach plastic as they contribute significantly and disproportionately to this topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:802:8380:D6D0:8FB:5649:90C5:2A0 (talk) 00:56, 8 April 2020 (UTC)