Recycle or Lose It: Goa’s Waters Are Running Out of Time Due to Marine Pollution
Every year on May 17, the world pauses to acknowledge a crisis that is hiding in plain sight. In Goa, a popular tourism-oriented coastal state, that pause feels especially urgent. As Aiz News Goa celebrates World Recycling Day, the state’s sun-drenched coastlines and turquoise waters that draw in millions are fighting a quiet battle… one fought through segregation bins, deposit schemes and along with the hope that behaviour can change.
Panaji, May – For a state where the sea is as much a part of daily life, World Recycling Day is not an abstract global cause; it is a mirror held up to Goa’s own shoreline. What it reflects is a coastline and a cultural identity increasingly threatened by the waste that residents and tourists alike generate, discard, and unfortunately forget.
The quantum of waste generated was articulated recently by Goa’s Waste Management Minister Anastasio Monserrate in the state assembly session, during which he told the House that waste generated in the state over the last five years has increased by 96 TPD (tonnes per day) from 791.8 TPD in 2020 to 887.6 TPD in 2025.
The trouble lies in the fact that much of the waste generated on land, eventually finds its way into the marine habitat alongside.
Marine scientist Aaron Savio Lobo, who studies coastal and ocean ecosystems, brings a research lens to what many only see on the surface, tracking how land-based waste travels into and through Goa’s waters.
Lobo says the scale of the problem underwater is hard to state, and its sources are primarily land-based. “Most of it is leakage from land-based sources; that’s how it enters through the waterways or is directly dumped into the ocean. Abandoned fishing nets add excessively to the total.”
“Plastic can just smother a coral reef ecosystem, or even a soft-bottom area like a mud flat, and basically kill a lot of marine life,” says Lobo. Beyond smothering, floating plastic carries invasive species across ocean currents to ecosystems where they do not belong. More seriously, as plastic breaks down into microplastics, it begins to look like food. Fish such as sardines and anchovies, which feed on plankton, consume plastic because it mimics its shape and appearance. Larger animals face the same fate: leatherback turtles swallow plastic bags mistaken for jellyfish, while dolphins ingest net fragments that block their guts and kill them.
With land waste hindering marine life in ways that are clearly visible, the experiences of those who spend time beneath the surface offer a perspective that often goes unnoticed.
Clinton Fernandes is a Goa-based scuba and free diver who has been exploring the state’s reefs and coastal waters since 2012, documenting the changes he has witnessed beneath the surface over more than a decade.
“We’ve seen a decline in the numbers of fishes, turtles, and dolphins,” he says. “There’s an increase in plastic pollution due to an increase in the number of discarded nets and bottles… you name it, you see it.” Fernandes adds that the hazards are personal too: discarded nets and lines are a genuine entanglement risk for divers, dangerous without a cutting tool or a partner nearby.
The concerns expressed by marine experts and waste management professionals come at a time when the state administration is making active attempts to streamline management of waste which accumulates over time.
Waste management expert Richard Dias has been working towards the integration of policy and grassroots action to push for cleaner, better-sorted waste systems in the state.
“The first part of recycling is to ensure that there is segregation and clean waste. The cleaner the waste is and the better will be the segregation and the quality of recycling that one can achieve,” said Dias, who is an advocate for DRS, which attributes value to packaging waste.
Consumers pay a small deposit on the packaging at the time of purchase. When they return the empty packaging to the designated collection point, the deposit is refunded. Countries that have adopted DRS report recovery rates rising by 50–60 per cent.
“The moment a container has a value, you will be less prone to just throwing it away and more likely to take it back to recover the deposit.” For instance, a case of 12 alcohol bottles at ₹10 each carries a ₹120 deposit…enough, he argues, to make even the most casual beachgoer think twice before leaving it behind.
Let’s say if the deposit value is 10 rupees on a beer bottle, the person will think twice before throwing it.. Even if that person litters, the value is still encouraging enough to pick the bottle and deposit.
Data from other countries suggests that even a 30 per cent improvement in recovery would be transformative. But beneath Goa’s postcard-perfect surface, a different story is already being written in broken glass, abandoned nets, and the quiet disappearance of the creatures that once called these waters home.
Goa’s pride in its coastline means nothing if it isn’t backed by action. Better recycling systems and a culture of accountability are not distant ideals; they are the bare minimum. The ocean has absorbed human indifference for decades. On World Recycling Day, the most honest thing to acknowledge is that it cannot absorb much more.
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