Earlier this year, students from Downe House Muscat School took part in two key research projects. First, they trained by tagging litter in drone imagery from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, building skills they’ll apply to drone footage collected in Oman. Second, they created anti-littering signage for Wadi Al Khoudh and Al Suwayq beach. These signs allowed researchers to measure whether visual interventions influence littering behaviour in real-world settings.
Preliminary results from researcher core sampling along the Al Suwayq coastline revealed increasing microplastic concentrations with depth which was measured to 90 cm (at increments of 30cm). Alarmingly, around 60% of the particles found at 90cm were tyre wear fragments. Drone images from the same area highlighted a clear dominance of single-use plastics such as bottles, food wrappers, and disposable cutlery.
Also, in Wadi Al Koudh, there was evidence suggesting that the signs designed by the Downe House Muscat girls, did in fact have a positive impact on reducing littering- well done girls!