Plastics have outgrown most man-made materials and have long been under environmental scrutiny. However, robust global information, particularly about their end-of-life fate, is lacking. By identifying and synthesizing dispersed data on production, use, and end-of-life management of polymer resins, synthetic fibers, and additives, we present the first global analysis of all mass-produced plastics ever manufactured. We estimate that 8300 million metric tons (Mt) as of virgin plastics have been produced to date. As of 2015, approximately 6300 Mt of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. If current production and waste management trends continue, roughly 12,000 Mt of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050.

Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made

https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2978611/view

Microplastics in freshwater and terrestrial environments: Evaluating the current understanding to identify the knowledge gaps and future research priorities.

Microplastics are a pollutant of environmental concern Their presence in food destined for human consumption and in air samples has been reported Thus, microplastic exposure via diet or inhalation could occur, the human health effects of which are unknown The current review article draws upon cross-disciplinary scientific literature to discuss and evaluate the potential human health impacts of microplastics and outlines urgent areas for future research Key literature up to September 2016 relating to accumulation, particle toxicity, and chemical and microbial contaminants was critically examined Although microplastics and human health is an emerging field, complementary existing fields indicate potential particle, chemical and microbial hazards If inhaled or ingested, microplastics may accumulate and exert localized particle toxicity by inducing or enhancing an immune response Chemical toxicity could occur due to the localized leaching of component monomers, endogenous additives, and adsorbed enviro

Plastic and Human Health: A Micro Issue?

Plastic litter is widely acknowledged as a global environmental threat, and poor management and disposal lead to increasing levels in the environment. Of recent concern is the degradation of plastics from macro- to micro- and even to nanosized particles smaller than 100 nm in size. At the nanoscale, plastics are difficult to detect and can be transported in air, soil, and water compartments. While the impact of plastic debris on marine and fresh waters and organisms has been studied, the loads, transformations, transport, and fate of plastics in terrestrial and subsurface environments are largely overlooked. In this Critical Review, we first present estimated loads of plastics in different environmental compartments. We also provide a critical review of the current knowledge vis-a-vis nanoplastic (NP) and microplastic (MP) aggregation, deposition, and contaminant cotransport in the environment. Important factors that affect aggregation and deposition in natural subsurface environments are identified and c...

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Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Aquatic Environments: Aggregation, Deposition, and Enhanced Contaminant Transport

Microplastics in freshwater systems: A review on occurrence, environmental effects, and methods for microplastics detection.

https://hal-enpc.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01251430/document

Synthetic fibers in atmospheric fallout: A source of microplastics in the environment?

https://hal-enpc.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01418927/document

A first overview of textile fibers, including microplastics, in indoor and outdoor environments.

This study aimed at: (a) providing information on the occurrence and concentration ranges in urban stormwater for a wide array of pollutants (n = 77); (b) assessing whether despite the differences between various catchments (land use, climatic conditions, etc.), the trends in terms of contamination level are similar; and (c) analyzing the contribution of total atmospheric fallout (TAF) with respect to sources endogenous to this contamination. The studied contaminants include conventional stormwater contaminants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), Zn, Cu, Pb, etc.), in addition to poorly or undocumented pollutants such as nonylphenol and octylphenol ethoxylates (NPnEO and OPnEO), bisphenol A (BPA), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), a wide variety of pesticides, and various metals of relevance (As, Ti, Sr, V). Sampling and analysis were performed using homogeneous methods on three urban catchments with different land use patterns located in three distinct French towns. For many of these pollutants, the results do not allow highlighting a significant difference in stormwater quality at the scale of the three urban catchments considered. Significant differences were, however, observed for several metals (As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Sr and Zn), PAHs, and PBDEs, though this assessment would need to be confirmed by further experiments. The pollutant distributions between dissolved and particulate phases were found to be similar across the three experimental sites, thus suggesting no site dependence. Lastly, the contributions of TAF to stormwater contamination for micropollutants were quite low. This finding held true not only for PAHs, as previously demonstrated in the literature, but also for a broader range of molecules such as BPA, NPnEO, OPnEO, and PBDEs, whose high local production is correlated with the leaching of urban surfaces, buildings, and vehicles.

/pdf/micropollutants-in-urban-stormwater-occurrence-328hldxbca.pdf

Micropollutants in urban stormwater: occurrence, concentrations, and atmospheric contributions for a wide range of contaminants in three French catchments

Cet article synthetise les resultats du projet INOGEV sur les concentrations de micropolluants organiques et metalliques dans les eaux pluviales strictes. Ce projet a permis non seulement d’etudier certains polluants jusqu’alors faiblement documentes dans la litterature, mais egalement d’etablir les ordres de grandeur des concentrations totales, dissoutes et particulaires dans les eaux pluviales. Excepte pour quelques micropolluants pour lesquels le trafic automobile est une source importante de contamination (certains metaux, hydrocarbures aromatiques polycycliques HAP) et les polybromodiphenylethers (PBDE), aucune difference significative n’a ete observee entre les trois bassins versants etudies, la variabilite interevenementielle des concentrations sur un meme site etant du meme ordre de grandeur que la variabilite intersite. De maniere generale, la distribution des polluants entre phases dissoute et particulaire depend des proprietes physicochimiques des molecules. Les metaux sont preferentiellement associes aux particules : > 50 % pour As, Cd, Mo, Ni, V, Cu et Zn, et > 80 % pour Co, Cr, Pb et Ti. Pour les composes organiques, cette repartition depend fortement du coefficient octanol- eau (Kow). Au regard des processus de production et de transfert sur les surfaces urbaines, les resultats indiquent pour un large panel de molecules que les apports atmospheriques ne contribuent que minoritairement a la pollution observee aux exutoires, leur contribution n’excedant generalement pas 30 %. Demontre pour les metaux et les HAP a travers des etudes anterieures, ce resultat est innovant pour les autres molecules etudiees et vient confirmer une production locale importante.

/pdf/contamination-des-eaux-pluviales-par-les-micropolluants-2khatqs667.pdf

Cécile Mirande

Papers

Synthetic fibers in atmospheric fallout: A source of microplastics in the environment?

A first overview of textile fibers, including microplastics, in indoor and outdoor environments.

Micropollutants in urban stormwater: occurrence, concentrations, and atmospheric contributions for a wide range of contaminants in three French catchments

Contamination des eaux pluviales par les micropolluants : avancées du projet INOGEV