Journal ArticleDOI
Lost at sea: where is all the plastic?
Richard C. Thompson,Ylva S. Olsen,Richard P. Mitchell,Anthony Davis,Steven J. Rowland,Anthony W. G. John,Daniel F. McGonigle,Andrea E. Russell +7 more
TLDR
It is shown that microscopic plastic fragments and fibers are also widespread in the marine environment and may persist for centuries.Abstract:
Millions of metric tons of plastic are produced annually. Countless large items of plastic debris are accumulating in marine habitats worldwide and may persist for centuries ([ 1 ][1]–[ 4 ][2]). Here we show that microscopic plastic fragments and fibers ([Fig. 1A][3]) are also widespread in theread more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Microplastics in the marine environment
TL;DR: The mechanisms of generation and potential impacts of microplastics in the ocean environment are discussed, and the increasing levels of plastic pollution of the oceans are understood, it is important to better understand the impact of microPlastic in the Ocean food web.
Journal ArticleDOI
Accumulation and fragmentation of plastic debris in global environments.
TL;DR: Global plastics production and the accumulation of plastic waste are documented, showing that trends in mega- and macro-plastic accumulation rates are no longer uniformly increasing and that the average size of plastic particles in the environment seems to be decreasing.
Journal ArticleDOI
Microplastics as contaminants in the marine environment: a review.
TL;DR: Ingestion of microplastics has been demonstrated in a range of marine organisms, a process which may facilitate the transfer of chemical additives or hydrophobic waterborne pollutants to biota.
Journal ArticleDOI
Microplastics in the Marine Environment: A Review of the Methods Used for Identification and Quantification
TL;DR: This review of 68 studies compares the methodologies used for the identification and quantification of microplastics from the marine environment and suggests standardized sampling procedures which allow the spatiotemporal comparison ofmicroplastic abundance across marine environments.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea
Marcus Eriksen,Laurent Lebreton,Henry S. Carson,Martin Thiel,Charles J. Moore,Jose C. Borerro,François Galgani,Peter G. Ryan,Julia Reisser +8 more
TL;DR: The total number of plastic particles and their weight floating in the world's oceans is estimated from 24 expeditions across all five sub-tropical gyres, costal Australia, Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea conducting surface net tows and visual survey transects of large plastic debris.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review.
TL;DR: The deleterious effects of plastic debris on the marine environment were reviewed by bringing together most of the literature published so far on the topic, and a variety of approaches are urgently required to mitigate the problem.
Journal ArticleDOI
Polystyrene Spherules in Coastal Waters
TL;DR: White, opaque spherules are selectively consumed by 8 species of fish out of 14 species examined, and a chaetognath, and ingestion of the plastic may lead to intestinal blockage in smaller fish.
Journal ArticleDOI
Plastic Particles in Surface Waters of the Northwestern Atlantic
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Degradable plastics: A critical review
TL;DR: A review of degradable plastic technology has revealed that several effective copolymer and additive methods are used commercially for photodegradable plastics as mentioned in this paper, however, it was found that all commercial packaging plastics are not bi-degradable; all of them because their molecular weights are too high and their structures are too rigid for assimilation by organisms, and most of them also because they have substituents which prevent biodegradation via the enzymatic fatty acid oxidation mechanism.