Plastic Hotspot Mapping in Urban Water Systems

Paolo Tasseron,Tim Van Emmerik,Auke-Florian Hiemstra,Daniël Siepman,Hestia Zinsmeister,Liselotte Rambonnet

doi:10.3390/geosciences10090342

Paolo Tasseron, Tim Van Emmerik + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10090342

Copy DOI

Abstract

Reducing plastic pollution in rivers, lakes, and oceans is beneficial to aquatic animals and human livelihood. To achieve this, reliable observations of the abundance, spatiotemporal variation, and composition of plastics in aquatic ecosystems are crucial. Current efforts mainly focus on collecting data on the open ocean, on beaches and coastlines, and in river systems. Urban areas are the main source of plastic leakage into the natural environment, yet data on plastic pollution in urban water systems are scarce. In this paper, we present a simple method for plastic hotspot mapping in urban water systems. Through visual observations, macroplastic abundance and polymer categories are determined. Due to its simplicity, this method is suitable for citizen science data collection. A first application in the Dutch cities of Leiden and Wageningen showed similar mean plastic densities (111–133 items/km canal) and composition (75–80% soft plastics), but different spatial distributions. These observations emphasize the importance of long-term data collection to further understand and quantify spatiotemporal variations of plastics in urban water systems. In turn, this will support improved estimates of the contribution of urban areas to the plastic pollution of rivers and oceans.

Highlights

Plastic pollution in aquatic environments negatively impacts human livelihood and ecosystem health
This paper presents a simple method for hotspot mapping of plastic waste in urban water systems
This paper presents a simple method for hotspot mapping of plastic waste in urban water The method includes observations of floating plastic item transport, density, and polymer category

Summary

Introduction

Plastic pollution in aquatic environments negatively impacts human livelihood and ecosystem health. Around 69% of all plastic waste ever generated has ended up in landfills or the natural environment [1]. Land-based plastic waste is assumed to be an important source of marine plastic pollution. Rivers play a key role in the transport of plastics from source to sea and are estimated to emit around 1 Mt of plastics into the ocean annually [2]. Even in some of the world’s most polluted river systems, the total plastic emission to other water bodies is only 3% of the plastic waste generated within the river basin [3]. The remaining plastic waste accumulates within the river system—on riverbanks, in the sediment, or clogging hydraulic infrastructure [4]

Objectives

Results

Conclusion