Wasting the North Sea? – A field-based assessment of anthropogenic macrolitter loads and emission rates of three German tributaries

Schöneich-Argent, Rosanna Isabel; Dau, Kirsten; Freund, Holger

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114367

Cited by 70 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Both direct measures of marine inputs (Weideman et al, 2020) and refined estimates of solid waste budgets (Verster and Bouwman, 2020) indicate that Jambeck et al (2015) overestimate solid waste leakage from South Africa by roughly an order of magnitude. This concurs with recent direct measures of river inputs (Castro-Jiménez et al, 2019;Schöneich-Argent et al, 2020;Vriend et al, 2020) being several orders of magnitude less than those predicted by global models (Lebreton et al, 2017;Schmidt et al, 2017). Rather than seeking to explain the 'missing' plastic in the global plastic budget (Koelmans et al, 2017;Lebreton et al, 2019) perhaps we should be refining the models that predict plastic leakage.…”

Section: Litter Typesupporting

confidence: 80%

Toward Balancing the Budget: Surface Macro-Plastics Dominate the Mass of Particulate Pollution Stranded on Beaches

et al. 2020

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Most studies report the abundance of plastic items in the environment, but mass is an equally important currency for monitoring plastic pollution, particularly given attempts to balance the global plastic budget. We determined the size/mass composition of litter stranded on a remote, infrequently-cleaned sandy beach on the west coast of South Africa. Traditional surveys of superficial macro-litter were augmented by sieved transects for buried macro-litter (8-mm mesh), meso-litter (2-mm mesh) and sediment cores for micro-litter. Aggregating the data across all sampling scales, the total density was ∼1.9 × 10 5 anthropogenic particulate pollutants per linear meter of beach, 99.7% of which were microfibers (most of which are likely not 'plastic'). Plastics comprised 99.6% of beach macro-and meso-litter by number and 89% by mass. Small items dominated samples numerically, but were trivial relative to larger items in terms of their mass. Buried litter accounted for 86% of macro-plastic items, but only 5% of the mass of macro-plastics, because smaller items are buried more easily than large items. The total density of plastic (∼1.2 kg•m −1), at least half of which was from fisheries and shipping, is much lower than predicted by global models of plastic leakage from land-based sources. Ongoing degradation of plastic items already in the environment, particularly on beaches, is likely to result in a marked increase in plastic fragments, even if we stop leaking additional plastic. The collection of large items from beaches is a useful stopgap measure to limit the formation of micro-plastics while we formulate effective steps to prevent plastic leakage into the environment.

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Section: Litter Typesupporting

confidence: 80%

Toward Balancing the Budget: Surface Macro-Plastics Dominate the Mass of Particulate Pollution Stranded on Beaches

et al. 2020

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“…Annual input into oceans of average riverine, floating macroplastic (MaP) differentiated according to data from modelling and sampling (data based on[5,51,118,[128][129][130][131][132]). …”

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confidence: 99%

The Way of Macroplastic through the Environment

et al. 2020

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With the focus on microplastic in current research, macroplastic is often not further considered. Thus, this review paper is the first to analyse the entry paths, accumulation zones, and sinks of macroplastic in the aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric environment by presenting transport paths and concentrations in the environment as well as related risks. This is done by applying the Source–Pathway–Receptor model on macroplastic in the environment. Based on this model, the life cycle of macroplastic is structurally described, and knowledge gaps are identified. Hence, current research aspects on macroplastic as well as a sound delimitation between macro- and microplastic that can be applied to future research are indicated. The results can be used as basic information for further research and show a qualitative assessment of the impact of macroplastic that ends up in the environment and accumulates there. Furthermore, the applied model allows for the first time a quantitative and structured approach to macroplastic in the environment.

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“…To estimate river (micro) plastic emissions often mean or median (micro)plastic concentrations in conjunction with mean river discharge have been used (Lebreton et al, 2017;Atwood et al, 2019;Schöneich-Argent et al, 2020). Increased emissions of MPs with increased river discharge has been reported (Wagner et al, 2019) and for the rural Warnow river catchment we observed a significant linear C-Q relationship (p < 0.05).…”

Section: Practical Implications Of Applied Emission Scenariosmentioning

confidence: 77%

Combined Approaches to Predict Microplastic Emissions Within an Urbanized Estuary (Warnow, Southwestern Baltic Sea)

Piehl

Hauk

Robbe

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Microplastic river emissions are known to be one of the major sources for marine microplastic pollution. Especially urbanized estuaries localized at the land-sea interface and subjected to microplastic emissions from various sources exhibit a high microplastic discharge potential to adjacent coasts. To adapt effective measures against microplastic emissions a more detailed knowledge on the importance of various microplastic sources is necessary. As field data is scarce we combined different approaches to assess microplastic emissions into the Warnow estuary, southwestern Baltic Sea. Resulting microplastic emission estimates are based on in-situ measurements for the catchment emissions, whereas for the remaining microplastic sources within the estuary literature data on microplastic abundances, and various parameters were used (e.g. demographical, hydrological, geographical). The evaluation of the different emission scenarios revealed that the majority of microplastic is likely discharged by the Warnow river catchment (49.4%) and the separated city stormwater system (43.1%) into the estuary, followed by combined sewer discharges (6.1%). Wastewater treatment plant emissions exhibit the lowest percentage (1.4%). Our approach to estimate anti-fouling paint particles emissions from leisure and commercial shipping activities was associated with highest uncertainties. However, our results indicate the importance of this source highlighting the necessity for future research on the topic. Based on our assumptions for microplastic retention within the estuary, we estimate a potential annual emission of 152–291 billion microplastics (majority within the size class 10–100 µm) to the Baltic Sea. Considering all uncertainties of the different applied approaches, we could assess the importance of various microplastic sources which can be used by authorities to prioritize and establish emission reduction measures. Additionally, the study provides parameters for microplastic emission estimates that can be transferred from our model system to other urbanized Baltic estuaries.

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Wasting the North Sea? – A field-based assessment of anthropogenic macrolitter loads and emission rates of three German tributaries

Cited by 70 publications

References 33 publications

Toward Balancing the Budget: Surface Macro-Plastics Dominate the Mass of Particulate Pollution Stranded on Beaches

Toward Balancing the Budget: Surface Macro-Plastics Dominate the Mass of Particulate Pollution Stranded on Beaches

The Way of Macroplastic through the Environment

Combined Approaches to Predict Microplastic Emissions Within an Urbanized Estuary (Warnow, Southwestern Baltic Sea)

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