Plastics in the environment

Earth is polluted with plastic waste, with impacts on ecosystems and health. This Issue and online Collection bring together research on plastic in the environment and discussion on how to combat this growing problem.

The large quantities of plastics stored in landfills and dumpsites are often overlooked when discussing plastic pollution. Improperly managed waste disposal sites can leak plastics to the environment, requiring immediate action. Mitigation must be supported by research to quantify the scale of the problem and prioritize efforts.

Floating plastic is accumulating in the five subtropical oceanic gyres, but little is known about their composition, sources, and fate. Monitoring has provided insight into persistence and accumulation processes in the North Pacific Ocean, but their relevance in other gyres is unknown. Identifying the sources of plastics, in all subtropical gyres, is necessary for cleanup efforts to be effective.

Monitoring marine plastic pollution requires repeated, long-term, global and harmonised observations of plastic presence, quantity and type, which satellites can provide. To convince space agencies to take action, coordinated activities are urgently needed to agree on target environments and to integrate in situ and satellite-derived measurements.

Large quantities of plastics flow from rivers to estuaries, where they potentially converge in frontal zones. This Perspective describes the occurrence, transformation and impact of these processes, highlighting their importance in mitigating plastic pollution.

Atmospheric transport of microplastics could be a major source of plastic pollution to the ocean, yet observations currently remain limited. This Perspective quantifies the known budgets of the marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic cycle and proposes a future global observation strategy.

This Perspective aims to place nanoplastics in the context of global plastic pollution by assessing its sources and risks, and by assessing commonalities nanoplastics may share with other nanosized objects in environmental systems.

This Perspective examines how the characteristics of nanoplastic impact environmental fate, potential effects on biota and human health, sampling and analysis in a different way from either microplastic or engineered nanomaterials.

The uptake and transfer of nanoplastics in the roots and shoots of lettuce and wheat were quantified by doping polystyrene nanoparticles with Eu–β-diketonate and using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, time-gated luminescence and scanning electron microscopy.

Plastic pollution in seas is widespread, but some areas lack the high concentrations of plastic debris. Here the authors identified places where large amounts of plastic debris pass in the Mediterranean Sea thus helping to study plastic dispersion in regions where plastic debris does not accumulate, and a tool for mitigation strategies.

This study applies stable carbon isotope labelling to study polymer biodegradation in soils. This labelling enables accurate and precise tracking of polymer carbon during biodegradation and, thereby, provides a holistic picture of this process.

The authors show how untreated wastewater laced with microplastics and raw sewage is routinely discharged into UK river flows that are too low to disperse the microplastics downstream. This discharge creates acute microplastic contamination of river beds that threatens biodiversity and the quality of riverine habitats.

Data on marine litter are scattered. Harmonizing worldwide aquatic litter inventories, this study finds global litter dominated by plastics from take-out food, followed by fishing, with litter being trapped in nearshore areas and land-sourced plastic reaching the open ocean mostly as small fragments.

Microplastics have spread across the globe and reached even the most remote locations, but an understanding of their origins remains largely elusive. Here the authors quantify and characterise microplastics across the North Pole, finding that synthetic fibers like polyester are dominant and likely sourced from the Atlantic Ocean.

Airborne microplastic particles with a possible oceanic origin were identified in the marine atmosphere, far from the coast, using micro-Raman spectroscopy analyses of air samples, during a transect across the North Atlantic Ocean in 2016.

Polypropylene-based food containers are utilized widely, but their potential to degrade and produce microplastics is poorly understood. Here, microplastics released from formula preparation procedures in polypropylene feeding bottles are quantified, demonstrating the potential for global infant exposure to microplastics.

Microplastics can reach and affect regions far from where they are released because of atmospheric transport, suggest analyses of atmospheric deposition in a remote, pristine mountain catchment in France.

Winter floods flushed out 70% of the microplastic contamination from riverbed sediments in northwest England, according to analyses of sediment samples from 40 rural and urban sites.

Microplastics and nanoplastics may affect cloud formation processes by acting as ice-nucleating particles and cloud condensation nuclei.

Environmental cycling of microplastics and nanoplastics is complex; fully understanding these pollutants is hindered by inconsistent methodologies and experimentation within a narrow scope. Consistent methods are needed to advance plastic research and policy within the context of global environmental change.

Plastic debris and microplastics are ubiquitous in the Arctic. This Review describes the sources, distribution and consequences of this pollution, and calls for immediate action to mitigate further ecosystem impact.

Plastic debris in the marine environment provides a durable substrate that can be colonized by microorganisms and supports the growth of microbial biofilms. In this Review, Amaral-Zettler and colleagues explore the microbial ecology of the plastisphere in the context of its diversity and function, as well as suggesting areas for further research.

Discoveries of persistent coastal species in the open ocean shift our understanding of biogeographic barriers. Floating plastic debris from pollution now supports a novel sea surface community composed of coastal and oceanic species at sea that might portend significant ecological shifts in the marine environment.

The widespread occurrence of microscopic plastic particles in the ocean is of both and ecological and societal concern. Here, the authors review the biological impacts of interactions with microplastics in the marine environment.

Combining microplastic data from the California Current Ecosystem with high-resolution foraging measurements from 191 tag deployments on blue, fin and humpback whales, this study quantifies plastic ingestion rates and routes of exposure risk in filter-feeding megafauna.

Ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry revealed that plastic bags leach labile compounds. Bioassays performed in Scandinavian lakes indicated that these compounds are incorporated into biomass faster and more efficiently than natural organic matter.

The roles of marine plastisphere in global nitrogen cycling are largely unknown. Here, the authors indicate that the plastisphere could act as a potential source of N2O production, which is mainly regulated by the biotic denitrification

Microplastic pollution is a major threat to marine food webs, but the wider ranging impacts on global ocean biogeochemistry are poorly understood. Here the authors use an Earth system model to determine that zooplankton grazing on microplastics could exacerbate trends in ocean oxygen loss.

The transfer of organic contaminants from surface to deeper layers in farmland soils is barely enhanced by microplastic and nanoplastic transport, according to an analytical modeling study.

The presence of microplastics in wastewaters used for irrigation highlights the urgency of analysing the possible uptake of microplastics by crop plants. This study shows that submicrometre and micrometre plastic particles from treated wastewater enter the steles of crop plants via a crack entry at sites of lateral root emergence.

The accumulation of nanoplastics in terrestrial plants is directly linked to the nanoparticles’ charge and can have ecological effects and implications for agricultural sustainability and food safety.

Plastic pollution is an escalating problem and there is a need to predict the range of plastic sizes that an organism of interest could feasibly ingest. Here the authors use previously published data to develop an allometric equation for plastic size ingested as a function of animal body size, a relationship which could help predict risk of plastic introduction into food webs.

Microplastics are emerging ocean contaminants, but their fates in the ocean environment are poorly understood. Here the authors show that Antarctic krill digest micro plastics into nano plastics, thereby generating particles of a size that can cross biological and physical barriers.

Regional recovery from microplastic pollution-induced marine deoxygenation may take hundreds of years, according to a combination of biogeochemical and microplastic modelling.

Entrepreneurs are important actors in effectively managing marine plastic pollution, but they face unique challenges in developing sustainable business models within an unsustainable system. However, marine plastic entrepreneurs can engage with these tensions to create far-reaching social change beyond their business models.

The development of a global legally binding treaty by the UN to end plastic pollution is underway. To be effective, the global treaty requires new levels of transparency, disclosure and cooperation to support evidence-based policymaking that avoids the fragmented and reactionary policies of the past.

Plastic pollution is widely presented as a waste problem, resulting in proposed solutions that target end-of-life waste management and consumer behaviour. This framing misrepresents the entangled global social and ecological challenges of the plastic crisis, which must be recognised for effective, equitable and sustainable responses.

Solving the plastic waste problem requires pre- and post-consumption actions. Behaviour change interventions — including nudges, norm messages and education — offer opportunities to reduce demand for single-use plastic while industry-wide solutions and governmental policies are developed and expanded.

Plastics support modern life but are also associated with environmental pollution. This Review discusses technologies for the production and recycling of bioplastics as part of a more sustainable and circular economy.

Plastic debris continues to contaminate the environment, negatively impacting wildlife and ecosystems. This Review argues that polymer selection and product design must incorporate strategies for end-of-life management and strive to eliminate, or at least minimize, environmental persistence of plastic materials.

Microplastic is a complex contaminant causing great concern in society. This Review examines the properties of microplastic particles compared with natural particles in the environment and discusses methods of assessing the risks to humans and the environment.

The positive benefits afforded by the widespread use of plastics need to be reconciled with negative impacts on the environment and health across the entire plastics life cycle. Optimizing the balance in several facets of plastics production, use and waste management is necessary for a more sustainable relationship with these materials in the Anthropocene.

There is a growing awareness that plastic pollution poses a major environmental threat. This Review highlights the knowledge gap on their long-term impacts and recommends inclusion in life cycle analysis for better decision-making.

Citizen science efforts are instrumental in monitoring our progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Dilek Fraisl, Research Scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, and Omar Seidu, Director of Social and Demographic Statistics and the SDGs Coordinator at the Ghana Statistical Service, discuss how Ghana successfully integrated citizen science data into its official monitoring of marine plastic debris.

The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating plastic pollution. A shift in waste management practices is thus urgently needed to close the plastic loop, requiring governments, researchers and industries working towards intelligent design and sustainable upcycling.

Chemistry plays a determining role in every stage of the plastic life cycle. We reflect on the challenges and limitations of plastics — their sheer abundance, chemodiversity and imperfect recoverability leading to loss of material — and on the need for chemical and non-chemical approaches to overcome them.

Food systems rely on plastics, but a top-level understanding of their effects on environmental, food security and human health remains poorly explored. The systematic scoping review presented here describes the research landscape from 2000 onwards, finding many publications on agricultural production, but gaps in our knowledge on low-income regions and outcomes for human health.

China announced a ban on its import of most plastic waste in 2017, resulting in an impact on global environmental sustainability. Here the authors quantify the environmental impacts of changes in the flow patterns and treatment methods of 6 types of plastic waste in 18 countries subsequent to the ban.

The online food delivery and takeaway market is growing in China, serving 406 million customers with 10.0 billion orders in 2018. Here, data from an online food delivery platform, life-cycle environmental impacts of packaging and tableware waste generated across 353 cities in China, and scenarios for paper alternatives and tableware sharing are presented.

The life-cycle GHG emissions from plastics are expected to increase. Here, it is shown that an aggressive strategy of decarbonizing energy infrastructure, improving recycling, adopting bio-based plastics and reducing demand is required to keep emissions below 2015 levels.