POPs monitoring in Australia and New Zealand using plastic resin pellets, and International Pellet Watch as a tool for education and raising public awareness on plastic debris and POPs

Yeo, Bee Geok; Takada, Hideshige; Taylor, Heidi; Ito, Munechika; Hosoda, Junki; Allinson, Mayumi; Connell, Sharnie; Greaves, Laura C.; McGrath, John S.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.11.006

Cited by 56 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In recent years, there is increasing interest in marine pollution owing to the effect of microplastics [ 1 , 2 ]. Microplastics are defined as particles of less than 5 mm in size and depending on the plastic, it has been shown that various chemicals and toxic blends can be absorbed onto their surface [ 3 ]. For this, it is great concern that these blends could be accumulated into zooplankton, fish, and finally to mammals through the food chain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Degradation Behavior in Seawater of Polyester Blends Containing Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx)

et al. 2018

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The microbial degradation behavior of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx) and its compound with several polyesters such as poly(butylene adipate-co-telephtharate) (PBAT), poly(butylene succinate) (PBS), and polylactic acid (PLA) in seawater was tested by a biological oxygen demand (BOD) method. PHBHHx showed excellent biodegradation in seawater in this study. In addition, the biodegradation rate of several blends was much influenced by the weight ratio of PHBHHx in their blends and decreased in accordance with the decrement of PHBHHX ratio. The surface morphology of the sheet was important factor for controlling the biodegradation rate of PHBHHx-containing blends in seawater.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial Degradation Behavior in Seawater of Polyester Blends Containing Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx)

et al. 2018

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“…The program (which can be characterized as a voluntary citizen science program) has participants in more than 50 countries [56]. Yeo et al [57] describe how the implementation of the IPW program in Australia and New Zealand has been used to collect data. The authors found that the science communication part of the IPW program was so effective that it could be used to generate awareness of both plastic debris and POPs.…”

Section: Citizen Science and Plastic Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The visibility generates a higher awareness of the problem than for less visible problems, leading to significant involvement in CS projects, and possibly policy measures as those described above for Rwanda. Furthermore it can also be used to increase the awareness and improve the risk perception or other less visible, but equally problematic, environmental problems, such as the contamination of POPs [57].…”

Section: Citizen Science and Plastic Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk Perception of Plastic Pollution: Importance of Stakeholder Involvement and Citizen Science

Syberg

Hansen

Christensen

et al. 2017

The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry

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Risk perception has a significant impact on how society reacts to a given risk. There have been cases where a mismatch between the actual risk and the perception of it has led to poor decisions on societal initiatives, such as inappropriate regulatory measures. It is therefore important that the perception of risk is based on an informed foundation acknowledging the biases and drivers that inevitably go with risk perception. Plastic pollution differs in regard to other classical risks, such as those posed by chemicals or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), since the pollution is more visible and already has a significant magnitude. At the same time, everyone is familiar with using plastic, and our daily lives are highly dependent on the use of plastic. This offers some potential to strengthen the societal risk perception and subsequently implement effective measures to address the pollution.In this chapter, we define eight risk perception drivers (voluntariness, control, knowledge, timing, severity, benefit, novelty, and tangibility) and relate these drivers to plastic pollution. We discuss the process in which plastic pollution has been recognized as an important environmental problem by scientists, the public, and policy makers and elaborate on how the eight risk drivers have influenced this process. Plastic pollution has several of the characteristics that can enhance people's perception of the risk as being important and which has generated great awareness of the problem. The chapter finally discusses how risk perception can be improved by greater stakeholder involvement and utilization of citizen science and thereby improve the foundation for timely and efficient societal measures.

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“…An important step is the extraction of the chemicals from the plastic matrices, which can present heterogeneous physical-chemical characteristics depending on the polymer type, its degradation stage, and pre-treatments. Most of the investigations reported in the literature use maceration or Soxhlet techniques 4,5,6,9,13,14,15,16,17,18 , which are solvent and/or time consuming. Regarding the growing interest for this issue, alternatives should be developed, for a faster evaluation of organic contaminants adsorbed on plastic pieces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extraction of Organochlorine Pesticides from Plastic Pellets and Plastic Type Analysis

Pflieger¹,

Makorič²,

Viršek³

et al. 2017

JoVE

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Plastic resin pellets, categorized as microplastics (≤5 mm in diameter), are small granules that can be unintentionally released to the environment during manufacturing and transport. Because of their environmental persistence, they are widely distributed in the oceans and on beaches all over the world. They can act as a vector of potentially toxic organic compounds (e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls) and might consequently negatively affect marine organisms. Their possible impacts along the food chain are not yet well understood. In order to assess the hazards associated with the occurrence of plastic pellets in the marine environment, it is necessary to develop methodologies that allow for rapid determination of associated organic contaminant levels. The present protocol describes the different steps required for sampling resin pellets, analyzing adsorbed organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and identifying the plastic type. The focus is on the extraction of OCPs from plastic pellets by means of a pressurized fluid extractor (PFE) and on the polymer chemical analysis applying Fourier Transform-InfraRed (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The developed methodology focuses on 11 OCPs and related compounds, including dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its two main metabolites, lindane and two production isomers, as well as the two biologically active isomers of technical endosulfan. This protocol constitutes a simple and rapid alternative to existing methodology for evaluating the concentration of organic contaminants adsorbed on plastic pieces.

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POPs monitoring in Australia and New Zealand using plastic resin pellets, and International Pellet Watch as a tool for education and raising public awareness on plastic debris and POPs

Cited by 56 publications

References 30 publications

Microbial Degradation Behavior in Seawater of Polyester Blends Containing Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx)

Microbial Degradation Behavior in Seawater of Polyester Blends Containing Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHHx)

Risk Perception of Plastic Pollution: Importance of Stakeholder Involvement and Citizen Science

Extraction of Organochlorine Pesticides from Plastic Pellets and Plastic Type Analysis

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