Plastic as a Persistent Marine Pollutant

Worm, Boris; Lotze, Heike K.; Jubinville, Isabelle; Wilcox, Chris; Jambeck, Jenna

doi:10.1146/annurev-environ-102016-060700

Cited by 524 publications

(251 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Nowadays, a wide variety of petroleum-based synthetic polymers are produced worldwide to the extent of 20-fold increase over the five decades since 1960s and a slowdown of this trend is not expected 2 . Accumulated marine and terrestrial pollution problems, as well as the negative impacts of microplastic exposure on human health, have caused escalating public and governmental concerns 3,4 . With the excessive use of plastics and increasing pressure on the capacity for plastic waste disposal, the demand for eco-friendly waste management has assumed dramatically importance in the last few years 5,6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computational redesign of a PETase for plastic biodegradation by the GRAPE strategy

Chen

Liu

et al. 2019

Preprint

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The excessive use of plastics has been accompanied by severe ecologically damaging effects. The recent discovery of a PETase from Ideonella sakaiensis that decomposes poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) under mild conditions provides an attractive avenue for the biodegradation of plastics. However, the inherent instability of the enzyme limits its practical 20 15 and the Biological Resources Program (KFJ-BRP-009) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computational redesign of a PETase for plastic biodegradation by the GRAPE strategy

Chen

Liu

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…Inevitably, MPs will enter the food chain, and being, also, able to accumulate high concentrations of POPs and other SoC (Hahladakis et al 2018b), it will inevitably serve as a pathway for their transfer to aquatic and marine organisms (Rochman et al 2013) and consequently human health (Worm et al 2017). It is worth mentioning that there have been several attempts and calls for MPs to be regarded as POPs, owning to their pervasive and persistent nature (Hurley et al 2018).…”

Section: Plastic Waste In the Marine And Terrestrial Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delineating and preventing plastic waste leakage in the marine and terrestrial environment

Hahladakis

2020

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Plastics are nowadays considered to be the workhorse material of our modern society with an ubiquitous presence that has increased manifold over the past 60 years, providing several benefits to the global economy. However, inappropriate and/or uncontrolled disposal practices, poor waste management infrastructure and application of insufficient recycling technologies, coupled with a lack of public awareness and incentives, have rendered plastic waste omnipresent, littering both the marine and the terrestrial environment with multi-faceted impacts. This short communication/commentary aims at delineating the plastic litter global challenge providing, at the same time, scientific views and perspectives on properly dealing with this material type, both upstream and downstream.

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“…54,70 Plastic has been classified as a persistent marine pollutant. 71 Coral reefs are home to more than 25% of marine life, 72 and from an examination 73 of 125,000 corals across the Asia-Pacific region, where half the world's reefs are, it was found that 89% of those fouled by plastic were suffering disease, in contrast with plasticfree reefs, where all but 4% of the corals appeared healthy. Coral becomes stressed by plastic, as a result of light deprivation, the release of toxins, and by anoxia, which encourages their invasion by pathogens.…”

Section: Environmental and Human Health Effects Of Plastic Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solving the plastic problem: From cradle to grave, to reincarnation

Rhodes¹

2019

Science Progress

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Plastic packaging accounts for 36% of all plastics made, but amounts to 47% of all plastic waste; 90% of all plastic items are used once and then discarded, which corresponds to around 50% of the total mass of plastics manufactured. Evidence for the ubiquity of microplastic pollution is accumulating rapidly, and wherever such material is sought, it seems to be found. Thus, microplastics have been identified in Arctic ice, the air, food and drinking water, soils, rivers, aquifers, remote maintain regions, glaciers, the oceans and ocean sediments, including waters and deep sea sediments around Antarctica, and within the deepest marine trenches of the Earth. They have also been detected in the bodies of animals, including humans, and as being passed along the hierarchy of food chains, up to marine top predators. Evidence has also been presented that microplastics are able to cross different life stages of mosquito that use different habitats -larva (feeding) to pupa (non-feeding) to adult terrestrial (flying) -and therefore can be spread from aquatic systems by flying insects. The so-called 'missing plastic problem' appears to be, in part, due to limitations in sampling methods, that is, many of the very small microplastic particles may simply escape capture in the trawl nets that are typically employed to collect them, but have been evidenced in grab-sampling experiments. Moreover, it is simply not possible to measure entirely through the vast, oceanic volumes of the oceans. It can, however, be concluded with some confidence that the majority of the plastic is not located at the sea surface, and indeed, several different sinks have been proposed for microplastics, including the sea floor and sediments, the ocean column itself, ice sheets, glaciers and soils. The treatment of land with sewage sludge is also thought to make a significant contribution of microplastics to soil. A substantial amount of airborne microparticulate pollution is created by the abrasion of tyres on road surfaces (and other 'non-exhaust' sources), meaning that even electric vehicles are not 'clean' in this regard, despite their elimination of tailpipe PM 2.5 and PM 10 emissions. The emergence of nanoplastics in the environment poses a new set of potential threats, although any impacts on human health are not yet known, save, as indicated from model studies. While improved design, manufacture, collection, reuse, repurposing and reprocessing/recycling of plastic items are necessary, overwhelmingly, a Article Rhodes 219 curbing in the use of plastic materials in the first place is demanded, particularly from single-use packaging. However, plastic pollution is just one element in the overall matrix of a changing climate ('the world's woes') and must be addressed as part of an integrated consideration of how we use all resources, fossil and otherwise, and the need to change our expectations, goals and lifestyles. In this effort, the role of deglobalisation/relocalisation may prove critical: thus, food and other necessities might be produced more on...

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Plastic as a Persistent Marine Pollutant

Cited by 524 publications

References 94 publications

Computational redesign of a PETase for plastic biodegradation by the GRAPE strategy

Computational redesign of a PETase for plastic biodegradation by the GRAPE strategy

Delineating and preventing plastic waste leakage in the marine and terrestrial environment

Solving the plastic problem: From cradle to grave, to reincarnation

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