Post-pandemic micro/nanoplastic pollution: Toward a sustainable management

Dey, Thuhin Kumar; Rasel, Md.; Roy, Tapati; Uddin, Md. Elias; Pramanik, Biplob Kumar; Jamal, Mamun

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161390

Cited by 20 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…During this global health crisis, the use of personal protection equipment (PPE) to safeguard the human population was very prominent, which resulted in vast plastic pollution to the marine environment [64][65][66]. Face masks were effective and cheap protective equipment widely used, with polypropylene as their major component [67]. It has been studied that face masks can release fibers if they are discarded into the environment and with their gradual aging and decomposition, the whole mask would completely become microplastics [68].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Data on Anthropic Debris Contamination in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Juvenile Scalloped Hammerhead Shark (<em>Sphyrna lewini</em>) in the Gulf of California

Malthaner,

Garcia,

Ríos Mendoza

et al. 2024

Preprint

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According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, the scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) is a critically endangered species, primarily due to intense fishing and other anthropogenic effects such as pollution. Nowadays, plastic debris contamination is a subject of concern due to its extensive presence in the sea and the digestive tracts of many fish species. The possible effects of plastic debris as a vector of other pollutants are still unknown. We analyzed the digestive tract of hammerhead sharks to investigate the correlation between plastic and other anthropic debris contamination and feeding habits in the eastern region of the Gulf of California. A total of 58 specimens were analyzed from the coastal area, revealing a plastic occurrence frequency of 79.3%. Of these, 91.4% corresponded to fibers, and 8.6% to fragments. The composition of the polymers was primarily cellulose (64.4%). According to their diet, these organisms exhibit benthopelagic habits, feeding both in the water column and on the seabed. These results indicate a high level of contamination of anthropogenic cellulosic microfibers in the area. This changed according to the year, indicating that the anthropic debris ingestion is related to the discharges of human activities and their seasonality rather than to a selection process by the sharks. Although cellulosic microfibers are recognized as a biomaterial, they can harm marine species, posing an additional threat to this iconic shark.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Data on Anthropic Debris Contamination in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Juvenile Scalloped Hammerhead Shark (<em>Sphyrna lewini</em>) in the Gulf of California

Malthaner,

Garcia,

Ríos Mendoza

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…With the significant increase in single-use plastic PPE, comes the potential consequence of improper disposal. Recent studies have suggested that COVID-19 medical waste has a high probability of becoming a significant source of microplastic pollution in our environment [ 38 , 39 ]. As we are still in the tail end of the pandemic, it is important to focus on this area of study and ensure that we appropriately manage the waste produced from the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Section: Sources Of Microplastic Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics as an emerging contaminant of concern to our environment: a brief overview of the sources and implications

Stapleton

Hai

2023

Bioengineered

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Over the years, it has become evident that microplastics are one of the most important contaminants of concern requiring significant attention. The large abundance of microplastics that are currently in the environment poses potential toxicity risks to all organisms that are exposed to them. Microplastics have been found to affect the physiological and biological processes in marine and terrestrial organisms. As well as being a contaminant of concern in itself, microplastics also have the ability to act as vectors for other contaminants. The potential for microplastics to carry pollutants and transfer them to other organisms has been documented in the literature. Microplastics have also been linked to hosting antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes which poses a significant risk to the current health system. There has been a significant increase in research published surrounding the topic of microplastics over the last 5 years. As such, it is difficult to determine and find up to date and relevant information. This overview paper aims to provide a snapshot of the current and emerging sources of microplastics, how microplastics can act as a contaminant and have toxic effects on a range of organisms and also be a vector for a large variety of other contaminants of concern. The aim of this paper is to act as a tool for future research to reference relevant and recent literature in this field.

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“…Equation (9) imposes that all infectious waste from a transshipment location candidate (but is not selected to establish a transshipment facility) must be sent to either a transshipment facility or a disposal one. Similarly, Equation (10) indicates that any disposal facility must send its waste to merely one disposal facility. These latter three constraints (Equations ( 8)-( 10)) imply no splitting of the waste during transportation.…”

Section: Problem Formulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There must be sufficient air intake to the incinerators to ensure complete combustion. This is to reduce air pollution emission and meet pollution control standards [7][8][9], as well as lower environmental contamination from micro/nano plastics used in medical components [10]. To avoid high management cost, infectious waste is sometimes improperly and illegally disposed of in the environment [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Multi-Objective Optimization Model for Multi-Facility Decisions of Infectious Waste Transshipment and Disposal

Kailomsom

Khompatraporn

2023

Sustainability

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Infectious waste disposal is a crucial concern in many areas. Not only is the waste obnoxious, but it can also pose a vital risk to human health. Disposal of infectious waste incurs higher costs than general waste disposal and must abide by stricter regulations. In this paper, the infectious waste disposal is formulated as a multi-objective optimization model. The objectives encompass economic, social, and environmental concerns. To save cost, waste transshipment facilities to function as consolidation points are proposed and integrated in the model. The economic objective includes construction and operational costs of the transshipment and disposal facilities. The social objective considers the communities surrounding the disposal facilities, while carbon dioxide emission is used as the measure in the environmental objective. The model is reformulated based on the lexicographic weighted Tchebycheff method to ensure that the Pareto frontier of the solutions is obtained. Then the model is applied to a health region in Thailand. Daily and every-other-day waste collection intervals are compared to examine additional benefits. Certain sensitivity of the solutions is also analyzed. After comparing several solutions, a compromise among all three objectives is suggested. It is composed of three transshipment and two disposal facilities, each with 1000 kg capacity. Moreover, if the solution is executed with the every-other-day waste collection interval, the overall costs can be saved. A sensitivity analysis of the solution on fuel price found that the solution was not very sensitive against an increase in the fuel price, in that when the fuel price increased by 20% the overall costs only increased by 7%. Lastly, when the daily infectious wastes are doubled, all the objective function values rise, ranging from 56% to 163%. The new solution suggests an increase in the number of the disposal facilities to four, but a decrease of the transshipment ones to only two.

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Post-pandemic micro/nanoplastic pollution: Toward a sustainable management

Cited by 20 publications

References 84 publications

First Data on Anthropic Debris Contamination in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Juvenile Scalloped Hammerhead Shark (<em>Sphyrna lewini</em>) in the Gulf of California

First Data on Anthropic Debris Contamination in the Gastrointestinal Tract of Juvenile Scalloped Hammerhead Shark (<em>Sphyrna lewini</em>) in the Gulf of California

Microplastics as an emerging contaminant of concern to our environment: a brief overview of the sources and implications

A Multi-Objective Optimization Model for Multi-Facility Decisions of Infectious Waste Transshipment and Disposal

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