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December 19, 2022Microplastics and NanoplasticsOpen Access

A mass budget and box model of global plastics cycling, degradation and dispersal in the land-ocean-atmosphere system

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Authors

JSJeroen E. SonkeCentre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueAKAlkuin Maximilian KoenigInstitut polytechnique de GrenobleNYNadiia YakovenkoCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Implication

Model reveals significant plastic accumulation across ecosystems, indicating urgent need for remediation strategies.

Key Points

  • The study aims to quantify the global plastics cycle and budget, detailing the dispersal and degradation of plastics since 1950.
  • Developed a box model to analyze the transport of plastics and microplastics among terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric reservoirs.
  • Forced the model with historical plastics production and waste data from 1950 to 2015.
  • Explored different scenarios for future plastic mobilization and exposure levels in ecosystems.
  • Estimated 82 Tg of plastics reside in the deep ocean, 116 Tg in shelf sediments, and 28 Tg in the terrestrial surface due to marine emissions.
  • Predicted a 4-fold increase in atmospheric and aquatic ecosystem exposure to small microplastics by 2050 under current scenarios.
  • Zero-release from 2025 onwards would potentially recover larger microplastic reservoirs on centennial time scales.

Cite This Study

Sonke et al. (2022) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a1fddff3f3a87967f2e3e05https://doi.org/10.1186/s43591-022-00048-w
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