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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

The plastic littering a beach can be tracked to its source

Efforts to clean up beaches could be aided by a model that traces the movement of floating plastic debris.
Plastic trash covers the beach in Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia on January 27, 2021.

Paradise lost: plastic fouls a beach in Bali, Indonesia. A new model can identify the sources of such rubbish. Credit: Agung Parameswara/Getty

Simulations of plastic particles’ travels on ocean currents can help scientists to identify sources of coastal pollution1.

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Nature 602, 551 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00433-8

References

  1. Van Duinen, B., Kaandorp, M. L. A. & Van Sebille, E. Geophys. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL097214 (2022).

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