Biology Teacher Candidates Awareness on Marine Plastic Litter

. Plastic litter is a global problem that threatens marine environment. The increase in plastic production is in line with the increase in the amount of plastic litter that pollutes the marine environment. This is due to a lack of awareness of the dangers of plastic litter which threatens the marine environment. This research was quantitative descriptive research in the form of a survey. The research aimed to find out how aware biology teacher candidates (BTC) are of marine plastic litter (MPL) issues. This research involved 204 biology education students of FKIP UMRAH. The research was carried out in June 2022. Data was collected using a questionnaire. Data was analyzed descriptively quantitatively. The results showed that students have good awareness of the MPL issues. This could be seen from students' perceptions regarding the causes of the MPL issues and the impact of MPL. It was also demonstrated by students' active participation in overcoming the MPL issues with a good category, as well as students' behavior towards MPL which can threaten the marine ecosystem and the life within it with a very good category.


Introduction
Litter is one of the problems experienced by the marine environment.Marine litter itself can be interpreted as solid objects which are the result of production or human-made which have persistence so that these objects can survive for a long time which are thrown into the sea either directly or indirectly [1].Human-produced litter which is a threat to the marine environment or what is known as anthropogenic litter, can generally be found in all ocean areas throughout the world today [2][3][4][5].
There are many types of litter that pollute the marine environment.Most of the litter found in the sea is dominated by litter made from plastic materials [6][7][8].Plastic is the most dominant litter found in the sea because almost all products used in daily life are made from plastic [9] such as plastic bags and food and drink containers [4,10,11].Plastic production continues to increase every year [12,13] and this is in line with the increase in the volume of marine plastic litter (MPL) [14].
Plastic litter that pollutes the marine environment is caused by many factors.The biggest factor causing the accumulation of MPL is human activity [15,16].Plastic litter that pollutes the marine environment is plastic that comes from land [17], one of which is transported throught rivers [18,19].Plastic litter is easily carried by river currents and floats easily because of its small size and light density [4,20].MPL also comes from shipping [21] and comes from tourism and industrial activities [22].Tourism activities that involve many visitors will cause plastic litter to be scattered on the beach if tourism is not supported by a good waste management system [23].
MPL cause various bad impacts.MPL can threaten important ecosystems in marine areas and the life within [17,[24][25][26][27][28].MPL also endangers human health because microplastics can enter the bodies of marine biota that are consumed by humans [29][30][31].Apart from that, MPL also disrupts human activities, such as reduced fishermen's catches due to the sea being polluted by plastic litter [32,33] and reduced tourist visits due to the sea being dirty because of plastic litter [34,35].
Students as agents of change for the future can create the marine environment into a habitable place for millions of species of living creatures in the sea.This can be done by raising awareness about the importance of preserving the marine environment and preventing damage to the marine environment and repairing damage to the marine environment [36].Awareness of the importance of protecting the marine environment will be seen through perceptions, attitudes and behavior [37][38][39].Among the things that show awareness of the dangers of MPL are cleaning up plastic litter on beaches and seas [38,40], campaigning for the importance of reducing the use of plastic [41], donating to marine environmental conservation activities [42,43], and attending seminars or conferences related to the marine environment to increase knowledge related to the marine environment because having good knowledge about the marine environment will have an impact on increasing awareness of the importance of protecting the marine environment [43][44][45].
Apart from that, awareness of the dangers of plastic litter can be manifested through behavior in using products made from plastic.One form of awareness of the dangers of plastic litter for the marine environment is reducing the use of single-use plastics [46][47][48].This aims to reduce the volume of MPL and prioritize the repeated use of plastic products.Apart from that, the use of bioplastic materials is also a form of awareness of the dangers of plastic litter for the environment because bioplastic products are more easily broken down by the environment so they do not have a negative impact on the environment [49].
Biology is a branch of natural science.Biology itself also has a scientific study that is very closely related to the environment so that in practice, biology learning is often linked to environmental aspects [50][51][52].Students who live in archipelagic areas such as the Riau Islands Province are also familiar with the marine environment because the Riau Islands province area consists of 96% sea areas and 4% land areas [53].With an area dominated by the sea, the coastal areas of the Riau Islands such as Tanjungpinang City are also not free from the MPL issues [54,55].So do students majoring in biology in the Riau Islands Province have a good awareness of the issues of plastic litter which threatens the marine environment around them?To find out this question, research conducted to know how aware biology education students are of the issues of MPL in terms of perception, participation and behavior.

Method
This research was quantitative descriptive research in the form of a survey.This research was conducted in June 2022 at Raja Ali Haji Maritime University (UMRAH).This research involved 204 Biology Education Depaertement Students of UMRAH who were biology teacher candidates (BTC) as research respondents.Data was collected using a questionnaire with closed questions.The closed questions used to measure BTC awareness on MPL include questions about BTC perceptions about the impact of plastic litter in the sea, BTC perceptions about the causes of MPL, participation of BTC in overcoming the issues of MPL and the behavior of BTC regarding MPL [39].The research instrument grid can be seen in Table 1.The answer to each question item used a Likert scale with 4 answer choice scales.The scale of answer choices for each question can be seen in Table 2. Data was analyzed descriptively by calculating the percentage of answers to each question item using equation 1.The interpretation of the percentage score obtained based on the number of question items, both for perception and participation and behavior, can be seen in Table 3 below.

Result and Discussion
Based on the research data that has been collected, the results of this research will be presented in two parts, including the perceptions of BTC regarding MPL as well as the participation and behavior of BTC regarding reducing MPL.The results of the research are as follows.

Perceptions of Biology Teacher Candidates (BTC) regarding Marine Plastic Litter (MPL)
BTC perceptions of MPL are divided into two parts, namely the perceptions of BTC about the causes of MPL and the perceptions of BTC about the impact of MPL.The research results for these two perceptions are described as follows.

Perceptions of Biology Teacher Candidates (BTC) about the causes of Marine Plastic Litter (MPL)
In this research, there are several causes of plastic waste which were stated in the research instrument.The causes of MPL stated in the research instrument included a lack of human awareness, inadequate litter disposal facilities on the seashore, the presence of industry and tourism around the sea area, and plastic litter carried by river flows and ending up in the sea.The perceptions of BTC about the causes of MPL can be seen in Table 4 below.In Table 4, it can be seen that BTC had a very high perception of MPL which is caused by a lack of human awareness.These results indicated that BTC believed that plastic litter that pollutes the marine environment is caused by human actions.Most of litter found in the sea comes from human activities [15,16] which is transported from the land and thrown into the sea [17].For other causes, BTC showed a high perception.These results showed that BTC also believed that MPL is also caused by inadequate litter disposal facilities around sea areas, the presence of industry and tourism around sea areas and plastic litter transported by river flows.These three causes are actually interrelated with the first cause, namely lack of human awareness.It is best for tourism and industry around sea areas to have good litter management so as not to increase the volume of litter thrown into the sea [56][57][58][59].Based on the results of perceptions about the causes of MPL, 31.37% of BTC had very high perceptions, 68.14% of BTC had high perceptions, and 0.49% of BTC had low perceptions as shown in Figure 1.

Perception of biology teacher candidates (BTC) about the impact of Marine Plastic Litter (MPL)
In this research, there are several impacts of MPL which were stated in the research instrument.These impacts include impacts on marine ecosystems, impacts on human health, and impacts on the economy of coastal communities.The perceptions of BTC about the impact of MPL based on research results can be seen in Table 5 below.In Table 5, it can be seen that BTC had very high perceptions for all sub-indicators of perception about the impacts of MPL.This shows that BTC strongly believe that MPL has a negative impact on many things, such as the marine ecosystem, human health and the economy of coastal communities.Plastic becomes a dangerous material if thrown carelessly into the environment because plastic contains dangerous chemical compounds [60,61].As a result of the accumulation of MPL, there is a lot of plastic in the form of microplastics in the bodies of fish that are consumed by humans [62,63].So it doesn't only endangers the marine environment [17,[24][25][26][27][28] but also endangers human health [29][30][31].The economy of coastal communities depends on fishing and tourism activities.With plastic litter accumulating in the sea, the number of fish catches by fishermen will decrease [32,33] and the number of tourists will also decrease [34,35].In contrast to the results of perceptions of BTC about the causes of MPL, perceptions of BTC about the impact of MPL show that as many as 83.82% of BTC had very high perceptions, 15.20% of BTC had high perceptions, and only 0.98% of BTC had a low perception as shown in figure 2. These results showed that the majority of BTC strongly believed that plastic MPL has a negative impact on many things, including humans.

Participation and behavior of Biology Teacher Candidates (BTC) regarding reducing Marine Plastic Litter (MPL)
In this section, the research finding will be presented in two parts, namely the participation of BTC to overcome the issues of MPL and the behavior of BTC towards MPL.The results are as follows.

Participation of Biology Teacher Candidas (BTC) to overcome the problem of Marine Plastic Litter (MPL)
Alleviating the issues of MPL can be done through active participation in various environmental programs or activities.In this study, participation stated in the research instrument includes active participation in campaigning for clean seas from plastic litter, active participation in activities to clean up plastic litter on beaches and seas, active participation in attending scientific meetings such as seminars or conferences on the topic of marine environmental conservation or revitalization marine environment, as well as active participation in providing donations to marine environmental conservation activities or revitalization of the marine environment.Based on the data, the participation of BTC in overcoming the issues of MPL can be seen in Table 6 as follows.In Table 6, it can be seen that the participation of BTC in overcoming the issues of MPL is in the good category.This showed that BTC contribute to overcome marine environmental issues both through environtmental activities and programs even though they are not fully active.Education regarding marine litter is important to raise awareness in protecting the marine environment [64][65][66] which includes participation in overcoming the issues of MPL such as participating in sea and beach clean-up activities [38,40], campaigning for clean seas from plastic litter [41], as well as donations for marine environmental revitalization programs [42,43].These results are also supported by the percentage of active participation category of BTC in overcoming the issues of MPL where as many as 15.69% of BTC had participation in the very good category, 56.86% of BTC had participation in the good category, 26.96% of BTC had participation in the poor category, and 0.49% of BTC had participation in the very poor category as shown in Figure 3.Although more than 50% of BTC had participation in the very good category, the percentage of BTC who had participation in the poor category are greater than the percentage of BTC who had participation in the very good category.

The behavior of Biology Teacher Candidates (BTC) towards the problem of Marine Plastic Litter (MPL)
The behavior towards MPL referred to in this research was the behavior of BTC regarding the use of plastic when in sea areas.Behavior towards MPL stated in the research instrument was the behavior of BTC when they find plastic litter when they are in sea areas, the behavior of BTC regarding the use of non-plastic materials when visiting sea areas, and the behavior of BTC in reducing the use of plastic products when visiting sea areas.Based on research conducted, the behavior of BTC towards the issues of MPL can be seen in Table 7 below.In Table 7, it can be seen that BTC had behavior towards the issues of MPL in the very good category except for the sub-indicator of carrying non-plastic products when visiting the beach and sea.These results indicate that it is still difficult for BTC to reduce the use of plastic products.Plastic production is increasing every year [12,13] due to the large demand for products made from plastic, one of which is due to the cheap price compared to products made from other materials [4,[9][10][11].The use of plastic must be accompanied by education regarding the dangers of using products made from plastic for the environment and even human health.The use of products made from plastic must be balanced with awareness of the dangers of plastic litter to the environment.With awareness of the importance of protecting the environment [37][38][39], humans will be wiser in using plastic.
In the sub-indicator of reducing the use of single-use plastic when visiting the beach and sea, the results show that the average behavior of BTC is in the very good category.This shows that although BTC cannot completely reduce the use of products made from plastic, at least BTC use products made from plastic repeatedly.Reducing the use of single-use plastic is a wise behavior in overcoming the issues of MPL because it can reduce the volume of plastic that is thrown away when it has been used [46][47][48].Another wise behavior that can be done to overcome the issues of MPL is to use alternative products with safer materials such as bioplastic [49].
Even though BTC only show participation in the good category, in taking part in activities to clean up plastic litter on beaches and seas, at least BTC are responsible for the plastic litter they carry or find when visiting beaches and seas as shown by the behavior of BTC for sub-indicator of picking up plastic litter found and throwing it in the trash when visiting the sea and beach with a very good behavior category.Being responsible for the litter produced is an attitude that is a manifestation of environmental awareness [39].This is also supported by the overall percentage of BTC in each category of behavior regarding the issues of MPL where 43.63% of BTC had behavior in the very good category, 53.92% of BTC had behavior in the good category, 2.45 % of BTC had behavior in the bad category, and there are no BTC who had behavior in the very bad category as shown in Figure 4.This shows better results from the participation of BTC in overcoming the issues of MPL where only a few BTC who had behavior in the bad category and there are no BTC who had behavior in the very bad category.

Conclusion
Based on the research results, it can be concluded that BTC who are students of the Biology Education Departement of FKIP UMRAH have good awareness of the issues of MPL.Awareness of the issues of MPL can be seen based on the perception of BTC about the causes of the issues of MPL which showed results in the high category and perceptions of the impact of the issues of MPL which showed results in the very high category.These results indicated that BTC are aware of the things that cause pollution of the marine environment and are also aware of the negative impacts of plastic litter which pollutes the marine environment.Apart from that, awareness of the issues of MPL was also demonstrated by the participation of BTC in overcoming the issues of MPL which is in the good category and also the behavior of BTC towards the issues of MPL which was in the very good category.This showed that apart from having a good perception of the issues of MPL, BTC also embody this perception in the form of active participation and behavior to overcome the issues of MPL.

4 . 1 . 20 , 2 . 3 .
Activeness in providing donations for the revitalization of the Pick up plastic litter found in the sea and throw it in the trash.19,Use non-plastic products when visiting the beach and sea.Reduce the use of single-use plastic when visiting the beach and sea. 25

Fig 1 .
Fig 1. Percentage of perception categories of overall BTC about the causes of MPL

Fig 2 .
Fig 2. Percentage of perception categories of overall BTC about the impact of MPL.

Fig 3 .
Fig 3. Percentage of participation categories of overall BTC to overcome the issues of MPL

Fig 4 .
Fig 4. Percentage of behavior categories of overall BTC regarding the issues of MPL

Table 1 .
The grids of research instrument.
1. Activeness in campaigning for clean seas from plastic litter.15 2. Activeness in beach and sea clean-up activities.16 3.Activeness in participating in seminars or conferences related to the marine environment.

Table 2 .
The answer choice scales

Table 3 .
Perception category

Table 4 .
Perceptions of BTC about the causes of MPL.

Table 5 .
BTC perceptions about the impact of MPL

Table 6 .
Participation of BTC in overcoming the problem of MPL

Table 7 .
Behavior of BTC the problem of MPL