Search results for "Plastic pollution"
showing 10 items of 12 documents
First Assessment of Plasticizers in Marine Coastal Litter-Feeder Fauna in the Mediterranean Sea
2021
Micro and nanoplastics are harmful to marine life due to their high level of fragmentation and resistance to degradation. Over the past two decades, marine coastal sediment has shown an increasing amount of microplastics being a sort of trap for debris wastes or chemicals. In such an environment some species may be successful candidates to be used as monitors of environmental and health hazards and can be considered a mirror of threats of natural habitats. Such species play a key role in the food web of littoral systems since they are litter-feeders, and are prey for fishes or higher trophic level species. A preliminary investigation was conducted on five species of small-sized amphipod cru…
Presence of plastic particles in waterbirds faeces collected in Spanish lakes
2017
Plastic intake by marine vertebrates has been widely reported, but information about its presence in continental waterfowl is scarce. Here we analyzed faeces of waterbirds species (European coot, Fulica atra, mallard, Anas platyrhynchos and shelduck, Tadorna tadorna) for plastic debris in five wetlands in Central Spain. We collected 89 faeces of shelduck distributed in four lakes, 43.8% of them presented plastic remnants. Sixty percent of 10 faeces of European coot and 45% of 40 faeces of mallard contained plastic debris. Plastic debris found was of two types, threads and fragments, and were identified as remnants of plastic objects used in agricultural fields surrounding the lakes. Differe…
Nano- and microplastic analysis: Focus on their occurrence in freshwater ecosystems and remediation technologies
2019
Plastic pollution is a global problem since 2016 when its production reached 322 million tonnes, excluding fibers. Daily discharges of microplastics (MPs, defined as <5 mm in size) are estimated in the range of 50,000 up to 15 million particles, whereas no information on nanoplastic (NP, <100 nm) release is available yet. Different processes further degraded these materials producing more MPs and NPs. This review attempts to fill the void of information on the state-of-art analysis of MPs and NPs (recently identified as emerging contaminants) and provides a critical overview on modern instrumentation, newly developed workflows, and promising techniques for their characterization (Raman and …
Plastic end-of-life alternatives, with a focus on the agricultural sector
2021
The end of life (EoL) of plastic polymers depends on when they stop being considered a resource and begin to be considered a waste. Even with dynamic management, plastic pollution will increase in the coming decades. Reduction strategies focus on reducing the quantities of materials used in the construction of individual objects for packaging, support for reuse and recycling, incentives for gathering low-value plastics, awareness, and simplification. The agricultural sector, a sector in which the use of plastic is (apparently) not high, needs to combine environmental, social, and above all economic aspects, which can help entrepreneurs in the sector to optimize the recycling process.
Management and research on plastic debris in Uruguayan Aquatic Systems: update and perspectives
2015
Synthetic plastics have become an indispensable component of modern life, and the amount of plastics disposal has increased dramatically as a result. With human population increasing, it is expected that the prevalence of plastic debris in the environment will also increase, unless sustainable daily habits are incorporated, waste management improved, and new alternative materials are discovered and popularized. To date, several reports show negative effects of plastic debris on marine and freshwater fauna (e.g. invertebrates, birds, turtles, marine mammals). Plastic are ubiquitous in the water column, deposited in fine sediments and enter the guts, respiratory structures and tissues of diff…
The Unintended Side Effects of Bioplastics: Carbon, Land, and Water Footprints
2020
(One Earth 3, 45–53, July 24, 2020) In the originally published version of this article, the authors inadvertently used global volumes of bioplastics in plastic packaging instead of European volumes for Figure 1C. After noticing this, the authors recalculated European bioplastic packaging consumption, and as such, Figure 1 and its legend have been corrected in the online article (as shown below) to reflect all data sources used for estimating European bioplastic volumes in Figure 1C. In the Experimental Procedures, the Data and Code Availability section has been updated, and the section “Estimation of European Bioplastic Volumes” has been added. Additionally, reference 69 is new, and two in…
A state of art on plastics in the oceans: Observation and Mitigation Methods
2019
Marine wildlife faces a growing number of threats across the globe, and the survival of many species and populations will be dependent on conservation action. The aim of this paper is a presentation of mitigation methods overview about plastics in the ocean, in fact plastic pollution is increasing and in order to mitigate this problem, technology might give the solution
Microplastics in the Center of Mediterranean: Comparison of the Two Calabrian Coasts and Distribution from Coastal Areas to the Open Sea
2021
Plastic is everywhere—increasing evidence suggests that plastic pollution is ubiquitous and persistent in ecosystems worldwide. Microplastic pollution in marine environments is particularly insidious, as small fragmentation can increase interaction with biota and food chain access. Of particular concern is the Mediterranean Sea, which has become a large area of accumulation of plastic debris, including microplastics, whose polymeric composition is still largely unknown. In this study, we analyzed the polymeric composition, particle size distribution, shape, and color of small plastic particles (ranging from 50 to 5000 µm) collected from the sea surface in six stations at the center of the M…
Analysis and Prevention of Microplastics Pollution in Water: Current Perspectives and Future Directions
2019
The analysis, prevention, and removal of microplastics (MPs) pollution in water is identified as one major problem the world is currently facing. MPs can be directly released to water or formed by the degradation of bigger plastics. Nowadays, it is estimated that annually between 4 and 12 million tonnes of plastic go into the seas and oceans-with a forecast for them to outweigh the amount of fish in 2050. Based on the existing studies, the characterization of MPs in waters is still one of the remaining challenges because they can be easily confused with organic or other types of matter. Consequently, there is an urgent necessity to establish pathways for the chemical identification of the M…
Impact of Plastic Debris on the Gut Microbiota of Caretta caretta From Northwestern Adriatic Sea
2021
Plastic pollution is nowadays a relevant threat for the ecological balance in marine ecosystems. Small plastic debris (PD) can enter food webs through various marine organisms, with possible consequences on their physiology and health. The loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), widespread across the whole Mediterranean Sea, is a “flagship species,” useful as indicator of the general pollution level of marine ecosystems. Ingested PD accumulate in the final section of turtles’ digestive tract before excretion. During their transit and accumulation, PD also interact with the residing microbial community, with possible feedback consequences on the host’s health. To explore the possible relati…