Collected marine litter — A growing waste challenge

Schneider, Falk; Parsons, Sophie; Clift, Sally E; Stolte, Andrea; McManus, Marcelle

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.01.011

Cited by 86 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 117 publications

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“…It is also almost negligible (1-12%) when compared to previous estimations of plastic fluxes. The compilation of a large amount of beach waste collection data from 130 countries shows that 250,000 metric tons of waste have been collected worldwide mostly since the 2000s, or around 12,500 t/yr (Schneider et al, 2018). Assuming that a similar cleaning effort is renewed each year and that all litter collected is plastic, the collection rate would be 0.1 to 2.5% of the estimated 0.5 to 12.7 million metric tons reaching the oceans (Jambeck et al, 2015;Lebreton et al, 2017;Schmidt et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assuming that a similar cleaning effort is renewed each year and that all litter collected is plastic, the collection rate would be 0.1 to 2.5% of the estimated 0.5 to 12.7 million metric tons reaching the oceans (Jambeck et al, 2015;Lebreton et al, 2017;Schmidt et al, 2017). Accordingly, although useful from a societal and environmental point of view, these clean-up operations alone would not be able to solve the problem of plastics in the oceans (Schneider et al, 2018). In addition, most cleanings deal with stocks and not fluxes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of the Plastic Inputs From the Seine Basin to the Sea Using Statistical and Field Approaches

et al. 2019

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Global estimations state that between 0.5 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans each year. They are, however, associated with great uncertainties due to methodological difficulties to accurately quantify land-based plastic fluxes into the oceans. New studies at basin scale are thus needed for better model calibrations. Here, a modeling approach based on Jambeck's statistical method and a field approach are compared in order to (i) quantify plastic fluxes in the Seine River and (ii) characterize and constrain uncertainties of both approaches. Despite the simplicity of the statistical approach and rough extrapolations, both methods yield similar results, i.e., between 1,100 and 5,900 t/yr of plastic litter flowing into the Sea of which about 88-128 t/yr are removed by cleaning operations. According to the marine strategy framework directive (2008/56/EC), actions are required to quantify plastic fluxes entering the oceans. Among different methods, a better use of the data from the waste collection should be considered. The development of a national and homogenous platform listing all the collects would be a first step in that direction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the Plastic Inputs From the Seine Basin to the Sea Using Statistical and Field Approaches

et al. 2019

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“…The accumulation of plastic litter is widely documented worldwide in marine, coastal, estuarine and fresh water environments (Axelsson and van Sebille, 2017;Schneider et al, 2018;Schwarz et al, 2019). Plastic litter is mostly exported into the ocean through rivers (Lebreton et al, 2017;Schmidt et al, 2017) and plastic items larger than 5 mm in particular constitute a global threat for sea birds, fishes and marine mammals after ingestion or entanglement (Barreiros and Raykov, 2014;Kühn et al, 2015;Wilcox et al, 2015;Thiel et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transfer dynamic of macroplastics in estuaries — New insights from the Seine estuary: Part 1. Long term dynamic based on date-prints on stranded debris

Tramoy

Gaspéri

Colasse³

et al. 2020

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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Rivers are a major pathway for plastics between lands and the ocean. At the land-ocean interface, estuaries make the transfer dynamic of plastics complex and nonlinear. That is why very little is known about this dynamic. In this respect, a specific marker (i.e. Microlax packaging) showing date-prints was systematically investigated in different riverbanks of the Seine estuary to identify the share of "old" and "recent" litter transiting through the estuary toward the ocean. Up to 70% of Microlax were "old" plastic items probably related to the meandering dynamic of the river over large time and space scales, and hydrodynamic conditions (tides) at smaller scales. This contributes together to increase the residence time of plastics into the estuary up to decades with almost endless transport, deposit and remobilization cycles. Consequently, the Seine estuary may function as a "microplastic factory" resulting from the fragmentation of macroplastics into microplastics well before they reach the ocean.

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“…Marine litter can be found throughout the marine environment, i.e., the beach, sea surface, water column, seafloor as well as on and in marine biota. Much of the research on distribution, accumulation zones, and concentrations of marine litter have focused on beach and floating litter, while studies on benthic litter are more problematic due to the less accessible environment (Galgani, 2015;Schneider et al, 2018;Schwarz et al, 2019). However, investigating the seafloor is of fundamental importance, as it is estimated that about 70% of marine debris sinks to the seabed with unknown consequences (UNEP, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Deal With Seafloor Marine Litter: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives

et al. 2020

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Marine litter is a significant and growing pollutant in the oceans. In recent years, the number of studies and initiatives trying to assess and tackle the global threat of marine litter has grown exponentially. Most of these studies, when considering macro-litter, focus on floating or stranded litter, whereas there is less information available about marine litter on the seabed. The aim of this article is to give an overview of the current state-of-the-art methods to address the issue of seafloor macro-litter pollution. The overview includes the following topics: the monitoring of macro-litter on the seafloor, the identification of possible litter accumulation hot spots on the seafloor through numerical models, and seafloor litter management approaches (from removal protocols to recycling processes). The article briefly analyzes the different approaches to involve stakeholders, since the marine litter topic is strongly related to the societal engagement. Finally, attempting to answer to all the critical aspects highlighted in the overview, the article highlights the need of innovative multi-level solutions to induce a change toward sustainable practices, transforming a problem into a real circular economy opportunity.

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Collected marine litter — A growing waste challenge

Cited by 86 publications

References 117 publications

Assessment of the Plastic Inputs From the Seine Basin to the Sea Using Statistical and Field Approaches

Assessment of the Plastic Inputs From the Seine Basin to the Sea Using Statistical and Field Approaches

Transfer dynamic of macroplastics in estuaries — New insights from the Seine estuary: Part 1. Long term dynamic based on date-prints on stranded debris

How to Deal With Seafloor Marine Litter: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives

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