Single-use take-away cups of paper are as toxic to aquatic midge larvae as plastic cups

Abstract

Single-use plastics and food packaging are the most common items polluting the environment, commonly identified in surveys and litter monitoring campaigns. There are pushes to ban these products from production and use in different regions, and to replace them with other materials viewed as “safer” or “more sustainable”. Here, we address the potential environmental impacts of take-away cups and lids used for hot and cold beverages, consisting of plastic or paper. We produced leachates from plastic cups (polypropylene), lids (polystyrene), and paper cups (lined with polylactic acid), under conditions representative of plastic leaching in the environment. The packaging items were placed and left to leach in sediment and freshwater for up to four weeks, and we tested the toxicity of contaminated water and sediment separately. We used the model aquatic invertebrate Chironomus riparius and assessed multiple endpoints both on larval stages and on emergence to the adult phase. We observed a significant growth inhibition with all the materials tested when the larvae were exposed in contaminated sediment. Developmental delays were also observed for all materials, both in contaminated water and sediment. We investigated teratogenic effects via the analysis of mouthpart deformities in chironomid larvae, and observed significant effects on larvae exposed to polystyrene lid leachates (in sediment). Finally, a significant delay in time to emergence was observed for females exposed to paper cups leachates (in sediment). Overall, our results indicate that all the tested food packaging materials can have adverse effects on chironomids. These effects can be observed from one week of material leaching in environmental conditions, and tend to increase with increasing leaching time. Moreover, more effects were observed in contaminated sediment, indicating that benthic organisms might be especially at risk. This study highlights the risk posed by take-away packaging and their associated chemicals, once discarded into the environment.