International policies to reduce plastic marine pollution from single-use plastics (plastic bags and microbeads): A review.

TL;DR: Plastics should remain in the top of the political agenda in Europe and across the world, not only to minimise plastic leakage and pollution, but to promote sustainable growth and to stimulate both green and blue- economies.

TL;DR: There is a need to assess alternatives that allow reductions of PPE and reinforce awareness on the proper public use and disposal, and assessment of contamination and impacts of plastics driven by the pandemic will be required once the outbreak ends.

TL;DR: An assessment of research on the sources, distribution and effects of microplastics, and trends in their analysis and policy has been carried out, finding that microplastic pollution in freshwater environments is of growing concern.

TL;DR: Mandating scientific sterilization and the use of sealed bags for safe disposal of contaminated plastic wastes should be an immediate priority to reduce the risk of transmission to sanitation workers.

Abstract: Dumping lots of plastics into our oceans Considerable progress has been made in determining the amount and location of plastic debris in our seas, but how much plastic actually enters them in the first place is more uncertain. Jambeck et al. combine available data on solid waste with a model that uses population density and economic status to estimate the amount of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. Unless waste management practices are improved, the flux of plastics to the oceans could increase by an order of magnitude within the next decade. Science, this issue p. 768 Millions of tons of plastic waste end up in our oceans every year. Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million MT entering the ocean. Population size and the quality of waste management systems largely determine which countries contribute the greatest mass of uncaptured waste available to become plastic marine debris. Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the ocean from land is predicted to increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.

TL;DR: The mechanisms of generation and potential impacts of microplastics in the ocean environment are discussed, and the increasing levels of plastic pollution of the oceans are understood, it is important to better understand the impact of microPlastic in the Ocean food web.

TL;DR: It is shown that microscopic plastic fragments and fibers are also widespread in the marine environment and may persist for centuries.

TL;DR: Global plastics production and the accumulation of plastic waste are documented, showing that trends in mega- and macro-plastic accumulation rates are no longer uniformly increasing and that the average size of plastic particles in the environment seems to be decreasing.