Monitoring plastic pollution in the oceans

Abstract

The word ‘plastic’ originates from the Ancient Greek ‘plastikos’, meaning shapeable, moldable. This trait has significantly contributed to its popularity and rapid global increase in use in recent decades, while also presenting immense challenges for its detection, identification, and quantification in marine ecosystems. Here, we review the current methods in marine plastic assessment and present the main challenges in monitoring plastic pollution in marine environments. We also focus on plastic and its additives’ interactions with biological systems and the urgent need to establish standardization of the methodologies and techniques worldwide to enable accurate evaluations and comparisons of plastic pollution and further our understanding of its impact on marine organisms and ecosystems.