A review of the cost and effectiveness of solutions to address plastic pollution

Abstract

Plastic usage increases year by year, and the growing trend is projected to continue. However as of 2017, only 9% of the 9 billion tons of plastic ever produced had been recycled leaving large amounts of plastics to contaminate the environment, resulting in important negative health and economic impacts. Curbing this trend is a major challenge that requires urgent and multifaceted action. Based on scientific and gray literature mainly published during the last 10 years, this review summarizes key solutions currently in use globally that have the potential to address at scale the plastic and microplastic contaminations from source to sea. They include technologies to control plastics in solid wastes (i.e. mechanical and chemical plastic recycling or incineration), in-stream (i.e. booms and clean-up boats, trash racks, and sea bins), and microplastics (i.e. stormwater, municipal wastewater and drinking water treatment), as well as general policy measures (i.e. measures to support the informal sector, bans, enforcement of levies, voluntary measures, extended producer responsibility, measures to enhance recycling and guidelines, standards and protocols to guide activities and interventions) to reduce use, reuse, and recycle plastics and microplastics in support of the technological options. The review discusses the effectiveness, capital expenditure, and operation and maintenance costs of the different technologies, the cost of implementation of policy measures, and the suitability of each solution under various conditions. This guidance is expected to help policymakers and practitioners address, in a sustainable and cost-efficient way, the plastic and microplastic management problem using technologies and policy instruments suitable in their local context. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-18038-5.

Modeling the Conditional Fragmentation-Induced Microplastic Distribution

“…We hypothesize that if the fragmentation of MPs is a constant independent of size x , the aging rate can be expressed as follows where the random variable X refers to the size of the MP (mm), x and x + Δ x represent a small size range (mm), and a 0 is the aging rate (mm –1 ). According to the definition of MPs, X is smaller than 5 mm. , Equation implies that the probability for MPs with any size X > x to be fragmented within the range x ≤ X ≤ x + Δ x is constant. However, this can hardly be true due to the different morphologies and surface functionality for large and small MPs. ,, We hypothesize that (a) the driving forces of fragmentation or size reduction of the plastics are natural or artificial factors ( e.g.…”

Microplastics in ecosystems: their implications and mitigation pathways

“…Various methods, such as advanced oxidation processes, 31,217–219 photocatalysis, 220 microwave 221 and bioremediation 222–226 have been employed to degrade/eliminate microplastics (MPs) from soil and water (Fig. 6).…”

Overview of Effect of Plastic Waste Pollution on Marine Environment

“…Support the ban on the use of disposable plastics as this helps reduce the consumption of this type of product. Avoid using products containing microbeads which are small plastic particles where that are found in some facial exfoliators, toothpaste, and bodywashes, these molecules easily enter the marine environment and then into hundreds of species in the marine environment [39]. According to IUCN, recycling, reuse, and the manufacture of environmentally friendly plastics play an important role in the disposal of plastic waste and reducing their entry into the aquatic environment.…”