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.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented surge of production, consumption, and disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE) including face masks, disposable gloves, and disinfectant ...wipes, which are often made of single use plastic. Widespread public use of these items has imposed pressure on municipalities to properly collect and dispose of potentially infectious PPE. There has been a lack of structured monitoring efforts to quantify the emerging trend of improperly disposed of PPE debris. In this study, we present a baseline monitoring survey to describe the spatial distribution of PPE debris during the COVID-19 pandemic from the metropolitan city of Toronto, Canada. Our objectives were to: (1) quantify PPE debris types among surveyed areas and; (2) identify PPE debris densities and accumulation of surveyed areas. A total of 1306 PPE debris items were documented, with the majority being disposable gloves (44%), followed by face masks (31%), and disinfecting wipes (25%). Of the face masks, 97% were designed for single use while only 3% were reusable. Of the surveyed locations, the highest daily average densities of PPE debris were recorded in the large and medium-sized grocery store parking lots and the hospital district (0.00475 items/m2, 0.00160 items/m2, and 0.00133 items/m2 respectively). The two surveyed residential areas had the following highest PPE densities (0.00029 items/m2 and 0.00027 items/m2), while the recreational trail had the lowest densities (0.00020 items/m2). Assuming a business-as-usual accumulation, an estimated 14,298 PPE items will be leaked as debris in just the surveyed areas annually. To facilitate proper disposal of PPE debris by the public we recommend development of municipal efforts to improve PPE collection methods that are informed by the described PPE waste pathways.
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•Public use of personal protective equipment (PPE) results with improper disposal.•Of the 1306 PPE debris items recorded disposable gloves were the most abundant.•We surveyed residential areas, grocery parking lots, a trail and a hospital district.•The grocery store parking lot and hospital district resulted with the most debris.•Policy decisions about PPE waste management should be informed by monitoring surveys.
The rapid growth of the use and disposal of plastic materials has proved to be a challenge for solid waste management systems with impacts on our environment and ocean. While recycling and the ...circular economy have been touted as potential solutions, upward of half of the plastic waste intended for recycling has been exported to hundreds of countries around the world. China, which has imported a cumulative 45% of plastic waste since 1992, recently implemented a new policy banning the importation of most plastic waste, begging the question of where the plastic waste will go now. We use commodity trade data for mass and value, region, and income level to illustrate that higher-income countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation have been exporting plastic waste (70% in 2016) to lower-income countries in the East Asia and Pacific for decades. An estimated 111 million metric tons of plastic waste will be displaced with the new Chinese policy by 2030. As 89% of historical exports consist of polymer groups often used in single-use plastic food packaging (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate), bold global ideas and actions for reducing quantities of nonrecyclable materials, redesigning products, and funding domestic plastic waste management are needed.
•Unmodified landfill leachate was used as a substrate in microbial fuel cells (MFCs).•Activated carbon as an anode provided significantly greater reduction in COD.•Power output for both activated ...carbon and biochar anodes were not significantly different.•A semi-continuous MFC provided similar COD reduction as the biochar anode batch MFC.
Microbial fuel cells were designed and operated to treat landfill leachate while continuously producing power. Two different anodes were tested in batch cycles using landfill leachate as a substrate without inoculation: an activated carbon anode and biochar anode. In addition, a semi-continuous serpentine design was evaluated. No significant difference of the mean was found for the peak voltage, current density or power densities between the batch cell with activated carbon or biochar. Similar COD reduction occurred at both the batch (with biochar) and semi-continuous scale (28%±8.8% and 21.7%±12.2%, respectively). The batch MFC with activated carbon anode had significantly higher COD removal (74.7%±5.5%). BOD was removed by the semi-continuous MFC, but ammonia was not removed in four of the five cycles. The results provide further information on the possibility of using MFCs in landfill leachate treatment systems.
Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean Jambeck, Jenna R.; Geyer, Roland; Wilcox, Chris ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
02/2015, Letnik:
347, Številka:
6223
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, ...population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million MT entering the ocean. Population size and the quality of waste management systems largely determine which countries contribute the greatest mass of uncaptured waste available to become plastic marine debris. Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the ocean from land is predicted to increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.
Plastic as a Persistent Marine Pollutant Worm, Boris; Lotze, Heike K; Jubinville, Isabelle ...
Annual review of environment and resources,
10/2017, Letnik:
42, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Synthetic organic polymers-or plastics-did not enter widespread use until the 1950s. By 2015, global production had increased to 322 million metric tons (Mt) year
−1
, which approaches the total ...weight of the human population produced in plastic every year. Approximately half is used for packaging and other disposables, 40% of plastic waste is not accounted for in managed landfills or recycling facilities, and 4.8-12.7 Mt year
−1
enter the ocean as macroscopic litter and microplastic particles. Here, we argue that such mismanaged plastic waste is similar to other persistent pollutants, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) or polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which once threatened a "silent spring" on land. Such a scenario seems now possible in the ocean, where plastic cannot be easily removed, accumulates in organisms and sediments, and persists much longer than on land. New evidence indicates a complex toxicology of plastic micro- and nanoparticles on marine life, and transfer up the food chain, including to people. We detail solutions to the current crisis of accumulating plastic pollution, suggesting a Global Convention on Plastic Pollution that incentivizes collaboration between governments, producers, scientists, and citizens.
Plastic pollution and climate change have commonly been treated as two separate issues and sometimes are even seen as competing. Here we present an alternative view that these two issues are ...fundamentally linked. Primarily, we explore how plastic contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the beginning to the end of its life cycle. Secondly, we show that more extreme weather and floods associated with climate change, will exacerbate the spread of plastic in the natural environment. Finally, both issues occur throughout the marine environment, and we show that ecosystems and species can be particularly vulnerable to both, such as coral reefs that face disease spread through plastic pollution and climate-driven increased global bleaching events. A Web of Science search showed climate change and plastic pollution studies in the ocean are often siloed, with only 0.4% of the articles examining both stressors simultaneously. We also identified a lack of regional and industry-specific life cycle analysis data for comparisons in relative GHG contributions by materials and products. Overall, we suggest that rather than debate over the relative importance of climate change or marine plastic pollution, a more productive course would be to determine the linking factors between the two and identify solutions to combat both crises.
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•Plastic pollution and climate change crises compete for public and policy attention.•These issues are linked, with some marine species and ecosystems vulnerable to both.•The root cause of both crises is the same, the overconsumption of finite resources.•Engagement in solving plastic pollution can increase action against climate change.•Integrated approaches include conserving blue carbon and a circular economy.
Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (poly(3HB-co-3HHx)) thermoplastics are a promising biodegradable alternative to traditional plastics for many consumer applications. Biodegradation ...measured by gaseous carbon loss of several types of poly(3HB-co-3HHx) plastic was investigated under anaerobic conditions and aerobic seawater environments. Under anaerobic conditions, the biodegradation levels of a manufactured sheet of poly(3HB-co-3HHx) and cellulose powder were not significantly different from one another over 85 days with 77.1 ± 6.1 and 62.9 ± 19.7% of the carbon converted to gas, respectively. However, the sheet of poly(3HB-co-3HHx) had significantly higher methane yield (p ≤ 0.05), 483.8 ± 35.2 mL·g–1 volatile solid (VS), compared to cellulose controls, 290.1 ± 92.7 mL·g–1 VS, which is attributed to a greater total carbon content. Under aerobic seawater conditions (148–195 days at room temperature), poly(3HB-co-3HHx) sheets were statistically similar to cellulose for biodegradation as gaseous carbon loss (up to 83% loss in about 6 months), although the degradation rate was lower than that for cellulose. The microbial diversity was investigated in both experiments to explore the dominant bacteria associated with biodegradation of poly(3HB-co-3HHx) plastic. For poly(3HB-co-3HHx) treatments, Cloacamonales and Thermotogales were enriched under anaerobic sludge conditions, while Clostridiales, Gemmatales, Phycisphaerales, and Chlamydiales were the most enriched under aerobic seawater conditions.
Plastic waste from the United States contaminates the environment domestically and in countries processing material for recycling.
Plastic waste affects environmental quality and ecosystem health. In ...2010, an estimated 5 to 13 million metric tons (Mt) of plastic waste entered the ocean from both developing countries with insufficient solid waste infrastructure and high-income countries with very high waste generation. We demonstrate that, in 2016, the United States generated the largest amount of plastic waste of any country in the world (42.0 Mt). Between 0.14 and 0.41 Mt of this waste was illegally dumped in the United States, and 0.15 to 0.99 Mt was inadequately managed in countries that imported materials collected in the United States for recycling. Accounting for these contributions, the amount of plastic waste generated in the United States estimated to enter the coastal environment in 2016 was up to five times larger than that estimated for 2010, rendering the United States’ contribution among the highest in the world.
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