Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview
Abstract Most plastics are made of persistent synthetic polymer matrices that contain chemical additives in significant amounts. Millions of tonnes of plastics are produced every year and a significant amount of this plastic enters the marine environment, either as macro- or microplastics. In this a...
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ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5524984 2023-05-15T15:16:09+02:00 Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview Andrade, Helena Glüge, Juliane Herzke, Dorte Ashta, Narain Maharaj Nayagar, Shwetha Manohar Scheringer, Martin 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5524984 https://springernature.figshare.com/collections/Oceanic_long-range_transport_of_organic_additives_present_in_plastic_products_an_overview/5524984 unknown figshare https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00522-x Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Biophysics Biochemistry Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Collection article 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5524984 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00522-x 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Abstract Most plastics are made of persistent synthetic polymer matrices that contain chemical additives in significant amounts. Millions of tonnes of plastics are produced every year and a significant amount of this plastic enters the marine environment, either as macro- or microplastics. In this article, an overview is given of the presence of marine plastic debris globally and its potential to reach remote locations in combination with an analysis of the oceanic long-range transport potential of organic additives present in plastic debris. The information gathered shows that leaching of hydrophobic substances from plastic is slow in the ocean, whereas more polar substances leach faster but mostly from the surface layers of the particle. Their high content used in plastic of several percent by weight allows also these chemicals to be transported over long distances without being completely depleted along the way. It is therefore likely that various types of additives reach remote locations with plastic debris. As a consequence, birds or other wildlife that ingest plastic debris are exposed to these substances, as leaching is accelerated in warm-blooded organisms and in hydrophobic fluids such as stomach oil, compared to leaching in water. Our estimates show that approximately 8100–18,900 t of various organic additives are transported with buoyant plastic matrices globally with a significant portion also transported to the Arctic. For many of these chemicals, long-range transport (LRT) by plastic as a carrier is their only means of travelling over long distances without degrading, resulting in plastic debris enabling the LRT of chemicals which otherwise would not reach polar environments with unknown consequences. The transport of organic additives via plastic debris is an additional long-range transport route that should also be considered under the Stockholm Convention. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Arctic |
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Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Biophysics Biochemistry Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified |
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Biophysics Biochemistry Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Andrade, Helena Glüge, Juliane Herzke, Dorte Ashta, Narain Maharaj Nayagar, Shwetha Manohar Scheringer, Martin Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
topic_facet |
Biophysics Biochemistry Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified |
description |
Abstract Most plastics are made of persistent synthetic polymer matrices that contain chemical additives in significant amounts. Millions of tonnes of plastics are produced every year and a significant amount of this plastic enters the marine environment, either as macro- or microplastics. In this article, an overview is given of the presence of marine plastic debris globally and its potential to reach remote locations in combination with an analysis of the oceanic long-range transport potential of organic additives present in plastic debris. The information gathered shows that leaching of hydrophobic substances from plastic is slow in the ocean, whereas more polar substances leach faster but mostly from the surface layers of the particle. Their high content used in plastic of several percent by weight allows also these chemicals to be transported over long distances without being completely depleted along the way. It is therefore likely that various types of additives reach remote locations with plastic debris. As a consequence, birds or other wildlife that ingest plastic debris are exposed to these substances, as leaching is accelerated in warm-blooded organisms and in hydrophobic fluids such as stomach oil, compared to leaching in water. Our estimates show that approximately 8100–18,900 t of various organic additives are transported with buoyant plastic matrices globally with a significant portion also transported to the Arctic. For many of these chemicals, long-range transport (LRT) by plastic as a carrier is their only means of travelling over long distances without degrading, resulting in plastic debris enabling the LRT of chemicals which otherwise would not reach polar environments with unknown consequences. The transport of organic additives via plastic debris is an additional long-range transport route that should also be considered under the Stockholm Convention. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Andrade, Helena Glüge, Juliane Herzke, Dorte Ashta, Narain Maharaj Nayagar, Shwetha Manohar Scheringer, Martin |
author_facet |
Andrade, Helena Glüge, Juliane Herzke, Dorte Ashta, Narain Maharaj Nayagar, Shwetha Manohar Scheringer, Martin |
author_sort |
Andrade, Helena |
title |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_short |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_full |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_fullStr |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_full_unstemmed |
Oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
title_sort |
oceanic long-range transport of organic additives present in plastic products: an overview |
publisher |
figshare |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5524984 https://springernature.figshare.com/collections/Oceanic_long-range_transport_of_organic_additives_present_in_plastic_products_an_overview/5524984 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00522-x |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5524984 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-021-00522-x |
_version_ |
1766346443392548864 |