Top Research Papers on Plastic Pollution

Abstract: Plastic pollution is one of the fastest growing environmental challenges of our time. Since the 1960’s, various concerns were raised regarding plastic waste generation (Plastic pollution) around the globe. Everyday tons of plastic waste is generated in various cities across the world. Since the 1950’s close to half of the plastic is ended up in landfills or dumped in the wild which is one of the most common ways of disposing plastics, and only 9% of plastic has been adequately recycled. It is also estimated that around 4 to12 million metric tons of plastic waste ends up in the oceans...

The field of polymer science recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. The excellent material properties of a wide range of plastics (generally used as a synonym for polymers) have opened many new...

The rational response to the global threat posed by accumulating and poorly reversible plastic pollution is to rapidly reduce plastic emissions through reductions in consumption of virgin plastic materials, along with internationally coordinated strategies for waste management.

Plastics, including microplastics, have generally been regarded as harmful to organisms because of their physical characteristics. There has recently been a call to understand and regard them as persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic. This review elaborates on the reasons that microplastics in particular should be considered as “toxic pollutants”. This view is supported by research demonstrating that they contain toxic chemicals within their structure and also adsorb additional chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides, metals, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs...

ABSTRACT In the last decade, plastic pollution has emerged as a major global issue in public discourse. Nonetheless, there is little consensus on which aspects of plastics constitute the problem. In India, litter, unmanaged disposal, lack of biodegradation, wasteful resource use, threats to bodily integrity and the natural order, and national dishonour are all variously associated with ‘plastic pollution’. What exactly, then, does the term reference when used in various streams of public discourse, and what semantic transformations does this imply? Using India as a case study, I examine discou...

Abstract. One of the most pressing environmental issues facing the world right now is plastic waste. Once in the environment, plastics continuously degrade into microplastics, which are fragments of plastic. There are more national and international promises to reduce microplastic pollution as the world's plastic production rises. National governments are increasingly banning single-use plastic products or imposing taxes on them. Consider the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Environment Assembly Resolutions on Marine Litter and Microplastics, and Addressing Single-Use Plastic Products...

Brand names can be used to hold plastic companies accountable for their items found polluting the environment. We used data from a 5-year (2018–2022) worldwide (84 countries) program to identify brands found on plastic items in the environment through 1576 audit events. We found that 50% of items were unbranded, calling for mandated producer reporting. The top five brands globally were The Coca-Cola Company (11%), PepsiCo (5%), Nestlé (3%), Danone (3%), and Altria (2%), accounting for 24% of the total branded count, and 56 companies accounted for more than 50%. There was a clear and strong log...

Given that there has been no legislative action on plastic pollution, advocates are turning to litigation to hold a variety of defendants—producers, transporters, manufacturers, and government officials—accountable for the harms associated with plastic. This article analyzes five lawsuits involving plastic pollution. This litigation has produced some favorable outcomes: Settlements have been reached, claims have proceeded, permits have been suspended, and waters have been reclassified. The most recent litigation, however, sounds in public nuisance, and commentaries from industry professionals ...

Abstract Non-Technical Summary Plastic harms ecosystem health and human livelihood on land, in rivers, and in the sea. To prevent and reduce plastic pollution, we must know how plastics move through the environment. Extreme events, such as floods, bring large amounts of plastic into rivers around the world. This article summarizes how different flood types (excessive rainfall, high river flow, or floods from the sea) flush or deposit plastic pollution, and how this impacts the environment. Furthermore, this paper also discusses how improved resilience to floods is important to prevent and redu...

The problem of plastic pollution is complex. There are some suggestions and views related to this plastic pollution. Microalgae species used to synthesize bioplastic. In Thailand there are 3 main obstacles Thailand’s government, private sector, and citizens from engaging in the sort of collective action needed to reduce marine plastic pollution. In Spain, a revision of European and Spanish legislation about plastics and marine pollution is needed and some strategies to reduce this kind of contamination in Spain. In Canada, recommendations to strengthen Single Use Plastic (SUP) management strat...

Excessive production, consumption, and indiscriminate disposal of plastic waste contribute to plastic pollution, which has a negative impact on the environment and human health. The KAP (knowledge, attitude, and practices) study is thought to be useful in mitigating plastic pollution because understanding the public’s knowledge, attitude, and practices toward plastic pollution can help identify problems and challenges, allowing appropriate policy decisions to be made to set up plans or implement interventions. This study assesses Malaysians’ level of knowledge, attitude, and practices toward p...

We live our lives immersed in plastic pollution: a problem that is becoming more acute. Viable alternatives that can reduce plastic pollution are being sought. Could bioplastics be the hoped-for solution to this problem?

Plastic litter is a global threat affecting all marine ecosystems. Utilizing digital media platforms like Google, Facebook, and Instagram we assessed the detrimental effects of marine plastic litter on the biodiversity of the Italian marine ecosystem. We noted that marine plastic litter had adverse consequences on marine reptiles, mammals, sea birds, fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, including endangered and vulnerable marine species. The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) was the most recorded species found entangled in plastic litter. Our investigation revealed that abandoned, lost, or o...

Ubiquitous marine plastic pollution has become a prominent ecological issue, as it provokes implications that threaten marine species, induces health concerns, and causes vast economic damages. The complex dynamics behind its pervasive occurrence are multipronged and multidimensional, and simple clear-cut causal chains cannot always be identified. Analytical appraisals aiming to advance the understanding of pervasive plastic pollution need to address these complexities and acknowledge the interconnectedness of social and ecological systems. Orthodox economic analyses have insufficiently addres...

Abstract Plastic pollution is a planetary crisis posing a significant threat to humans and the environment. The regulatory response to this crisis has so far been piecemeal and has not prevented the accumulation and ubiquity of plastic pollution. The growing concern over plastic pollution and the first regulatory measures directed against it soon resulted in court cases. By early 2023, cases concerning plastic pollution emerged in more than 30 countries around the world. From holding private polluters accountable to considering the constitutionality of restrictions on certain plastic products ...

On 2 March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) requested the Executive Director of UNEP to convene an international negotiating committee towards the negotiation of an international legally binding instrument on plastics by 2024. This article examines some of the proposed elements of such an instrument and outlines the next steps that can be expected in the negotiations. It also reflects on the results of the ad hoc open-ended working group to prepare for the work of the intergovernmental negotiating committee to develop an internatio...

ABSTRACT Bioplastics are used as potent eco-friendly alternatives to minimise the adverse environmental impacts induced by petroleum-based plastics. Bioplastics, especially biodegradable plastics are materials that can be produced from non-edible or waste products of agricultural fields and kitchens and could be decomposed by the microorganisms at the end conventional plastics are mainly mineral oil-based which mitigate one of the important resources of humanity. Though petrochemical-based plastics are very important materials in our daily lives, but excessive use and our negligence create sev...

a Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. b Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 463, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden. c 5Gyres Institute. Five Gyres Institute, Los Angeles, California, United States of America CA, 90016, USA d Section for Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, Department of Environmental and Resource Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark e Sweco Denmark, Copenhagen S, Denmark

The adverse effects of the accumulation of plastic on our planet are no longer sustainable; plastic is a major threat to all forms of life in all environments in addition to contributing to global warming. The academic world has been focusing on registering the damages caused by plastic pollution and finding solutions to refrain from and substitute plastic and its usages, which our consumer society is so heavily dependent on. A pathway towards limiting the use of plastic comes from the European Union 2019/904 Directive for limiting the production of single-use and oxo-degradable plastics. Curr...

Beginning around 1950 to 2021, about 6.3 billion tons of plastics have been delivered around the world, out of which only 9% is reused, individually. Human population increment is eventually related to the increasing use of plastic. Plastic items are answerable for consistent expansion in the development of plastic. We have surveyed in this paper, the most important written works on the various sorts of plastics underway, the negative impacts of these constituents to air, water, soil, organic entities and human wellbeing viz-a-viz the different removal technique. Papers that revealed ecologica...

The world faces two major environmental issues concurrently, namely climate change and plastic pollution. Though seemingly unrelated, they intricately influence each other. This review aims to present the intricate connections between climate change and plastic pollution through the review of recent literature in these genres. The review explains that global warming could increase plastic degradation through physical, chemical, and biological processes, leading to an increased abundance of microplastics. Global warming enhances the leaching of chemicals from microplastics. Higher temperatures ...

Plastic pollution includes microplastics. The environmental ubiquity of microplastics (< 5 mm) is evident and the leak of microplastics into the environment is projected to increase globally. Microplastics in the environment possess high heterogeneity in polymer composition, particle size, shapes, and surface chemistry, which sometimes result in contradictory toxicological findings. However, much less attention is paid to the color of microplastics, particularly black plastics that are the least recycled and account for a significant proportion of total plastic waste and environmental micropla...

Marine plastic pollution (MPP) has emerged as a global sustainability challenge with environmental, social, and economic consequences. This has inspired action at every scale of governance—from the local level to international institutions. However, policy and management efforts have been reactive and ad hoc, resulting in concerns about their efficacy, cost, and unintended consequences. To adequately address MPP and its global impacts, a systematic, evidence-based approach is needed. Seascape ecology, a subdiscipline of landscape ecology, is an interdisciplinary system science focused on the r...

References [1] Rockström, J., Steffan, W., Noone, K., et al. 2009, Planetary boundaries. Ecology and Society 14(2), 299–310. doi: 10.5751/ES-03180-140232. [2] Locke, J., 2010, Second treatise of government. Chapter V. Project Gutenburg. Available online at: https://www.gutenburg.org/files/7370/7370-h/7370-h.htmiles [3] Mbembe, A., 2019, Necropolitics (Durham NC: Duke University Press). [4] Ehrlich, P., 1970, The Population Bomb (New York: Sierra Club-Ballantine). [5] Commoner, B., 1971, The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology (New York: Knopf). [6] Meadows, D.H., Meadows, D.L., Randers...

The broad consequences of ‘blanket unconsented switching’ of stable respiratory patients from pressurized metered dose inhalers to dry powder inhalers are reviewed and recommendations to encourage an environmentally friendly patient-centered approach are provided.

As the content of the paper draws up on the theme “Beat the Plastic Pollution”, it focuses more on the current understanding and the concerns surrounding the issue of widespread use of plastic especially the single-use plastic. The annual global production of plastic is 300 million tonnes with roughly 50% disposed of after a single-use. Accumulation of plastic products are adversely affecting the animal habitats and as well as humans by polluting the environment. Pollution is everywhere which is killing us, from the highest reaches of our atmosphere to the darkest depths of our oceans. But tog...

With the fourth highest population and an ever-growing rate of plastic consumption, Indonesia is the second largest plastic polluter in the world (McCarthy, 2018). The country, which has only had plastic since the latter half of the 20th century, has staggeringly high rates of plastic waste which becomes pollution due to various factors. This paper examines the factors that go into why the rates of plastic pollution are so high, what people know about it and what is being done to help combat the problem. The four main topics explored are: laws, disposal methods, education and tourism. The stud...

High-resolution spatial and temporal data are reported that provide evidence of both global and regional microplastics transport, thus increasing the understanding of the microplastic cycle.

Abstract: In this present study the plastic aggregate obtained from E-waste is used as a partial replacement of coarse aggregate in self-compacting concrete. An experimental investigation on the fresh, hardened characteristics of concrete using M40 grade of Self compacting concrete are carried out by casting standard concrete with various volume fractions of plastic aggregate such as 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% to determine optimal dosage. The fresh properties of SCC reveal that the workability of concrete are improved by using plastic aggregate. Strength properties such as compressive strengt...

ABSTRACT Public knowledge regarding environmental problems is determined by how new sources frame the issues in specific terms. Media images of Southeast Asian countries, particularly Malaysia, drowning in plastic waste are rife after China’s import ban. The concern is mounting over the uneven distribution of environmental and health burdens between developed and developing countries. Despite the growing perils of plastic pollution, there is no comparative analysis available on environmental news coverage in Malaysian mainstream and alternative media. This study aims to fill this research gap ...

The world today is facing the challenge of rational resource management and recovery for the huge amount of plastic waste. The lack of technical skills for hazardous waste management, inadequately developed recycling and recovery infrastructure, and, above all, a lack of knowledge about rules and regulations are key factors. Behind this huge accumulation of plastic waste. The severity of plastic pollution has detrimental effects on the environment and the entire ecosystem. In this study, domestic waste is one of the main sources of municipal solid waste including food waste, paper, plastic, ra...

A global agreement on plastic should have quantitative reduction targets for the emissions of plastic pollution and regular measurements to track success. Here, we present a framework for measuring plastic emissions, akin to greenhouse gas emissions, and demonstrate its utility by calculating a baseline measurement for the City of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. We identify relevant sources of plastic pollution in the city, calculate emissions for each source by multiplying activity data by emission factors for each source, and sum the emissions to obtain the total annual emissions of plastic poll...

Plastics pollution is a global, relational, integrated, and intersectoral issue. Here, we undertook narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with nineteen key plastic pollution decision-makers. They offered a contextual lens to understand challenges facing Pacific Island (Te Moananui) nations in preventing plastics pollution. We build on the work of Ngata (2014-2021) and Liboiron (2014-2021) to situate the narrative analysis within a "waste colonialism" framework. We argue that plastics pollution as waste colonialism transcends environmental, policy, and industry concerns. "Indigenous ...

1 Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine IntelliSense and Computation, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China, 2 College of Ecology and Environment, Hainan University, Haikou, China, 3 Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-Resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China, 4 Department of Science and Environmental Studies (SES), The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, 5 School of Civil and Environmental Engin...

The world's largest waste dumpsites are far from our eyes, thousands of kilometres from French territory. They are called the seventh continent because these polluted areas are as large as a continent. It is estimated that 80 to 120 tonnes of waste ends up at sea every minute; a large part of this waste is plastic. While the densest debris accumulates on the seabed, floating debris is carried by currents, converging and accumulating in sub-tropical gyres, large circular currents. What are the effects of this plastic pollution on the environment and on man?

Abstract The discharge and dumping of plastic debris into the world's oceans has become an increasingly serious form of marine pollution in recent years. To counter such practices, a number of international agreements containing specific prohibitions against dumping plastics into the marine environment have been promulgated. The 1972 London Dumping Convention, Annex V to the MARPOL Convention, and the 1978 MARPOL Protocol cite plastic pollution as unlawful in international waters. Though not yet in force, particular provisions mandating protection and preservation of the marine environment in ...

Plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems is a growing environmental concern, as it has the potential to harm ecology, imperil aquatic organisms and cost ecological damage. Although rivers and other freshwater environments are known to play an important role in carrying land-based plastic trash to the world's seas, riverine ecosystems are also directly impacted by plastic pollution. A detailed understanding of the origin, movement, fate, and effects of riverine plastic waste is critical for better quantifying worldwide plastic pollution transport and effectively reducing sources and dangers. In ...

Description Research could gain from negotiations to reduce, reuse, and recycle the common material Research could gain from negotiations to reduce, reuse, and recycle the common material

Current challenges and factors hindering efforts to mitigate plastic pollution are identified to inform the presented recommendations while underscoring the exigency of finding sustainable solutions to plastic pollution that not only encompass existing challenges but also future threats presented by plastic pollution.

It is evident that MNPs possess the capacity to affect lung tissue in disease and health, yet it remains unclear to which extent this occurs upon exposure to ambient levels of MNPs, emphasising the need for a more comprehensive evaluation of environmental MNP exposure levels in everyday life.

Increasingly plastic pollution is being recognized as a critical environmental and human health threat of unprecedented scale and complexity. While trends in plastic production and consumption are still on the rise, the negative effects of uncollected, mismanaged, dumped or incinerated plastic waste are causing profound impacts on the environment, oceans, climate and food chains compromising the quality of life for humans and other living beings, with expected cumulative negative effects for the near future. Particularly populations in the Global South, where new markets for plastic consumer g...

Assessing three interlinked issues, plastic pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss separately can overlook potential interactions that may lead to positive or negative impacts on global ecosystem processes. Recent studies suggest that threatened species and ecosystems are vulnerable to both plastic pollution and climate change stressors. Here we consider the connectivity and state of knowledge between these three environmental issues with a focus on the Global South. Nine out of top ten Long-Term Climate Risk Index (CRI) (2000-2019) ranked countries are located within the Global South...

International policy discussions on plastic pollution are entering a new phase, with more than 100 governments calling for the launch of negotiations for a new global plastics agreement in 2022. This article aims to contribute to efforts to identify effective international policy levers to address plastic pollution. It takes stock of the evolution of views and perceptions on this complex and multi-faceted topic—from concerns about marine pollution and waste management towards new strategic directions that involve the entire plastics life-cycle and include climate and health impacts associated ...

Shoreline surveys are an accessible and common method for monitoring plastic pollution in aquatic environments. Their results are critical to well-informed pollution mitigation efforts. Here, we show that three environmental variables: (1) coarse sediment, (2) accumulations of organic material, and (3) snow and ice are dramatically underrepresented by existing shoreline plastic pollution research efforts. We reviewed 361 published shoreline surveys, encompassing 3,284 sample sites, and found that only 4% of sites included coarse sediment, only one study described sampling organic material for ...

It is argued that an integrated, global monitoring system for plastic pollution is needed to provide comprehensive, harmonized data for environmental, societal, and economic assessments and to deliver knowledge to support public policy and corporate contributions to the relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

COPYRIGHT © 2022 Diana, Karasik, Merrill, Morrison, Corcoran, Vermeer, Hepler-Smith, Jayasundara, Pare, Virdin, Eward, Somarelli, Dunphy-Daly and Rittschof. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these t...

Abstract: Nowadays, plastics are increasingly being used in our daily life activities, including the packaging in different food and brewing companies, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, and other production sectors need to pack their end products for efficient and safer product's delivery to the community. Plastics are produced through the biochemical process of polymerization or polycondensation. The post-use of generated plastic waste has many adverse impacts on the environment if not processed and managed in a proper way. This review aims to discuss the lifecycle of plastic products according to t...

The paper presents activities and results from the „Marine and River Litter Elimination, New Approach - MARLENA” project. The project emphasized the issue of water waste, the value of biodiversity and environmental protection, involving citizens in river and coastal cleaning campaigns and sharing good experiences in the field of pollution reduction and elimination. Funded under the Black Sea Basin Operational Program 2014-2020, the project is part of the European Union’s Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) within its European Neighborhood Instrument (ENI) and was carried out simultaneously in a num...

COPYRIGHT © 2023 Diana, Virdin, Valiyaveettil, Li and Rittschof. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. TYPE Editorial PUBLISHED 10 May 2023 DOI 10.3389/fmars.2023.1162680

Plastic pollution is one of today’s most serious environmental problems. The production of disposable plastic products has increased rapidly, far outpacing the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastic waste can be found in every part of the world, from the deepest oceans to the highest mountains, and it is wreaking havoc on wildlife and ecosystems.