Marine plastic waste input between 1990-2015 and potential beaching scenarios

Author(s):  
Charlotte Laufkoetter ◽  
Kevin Lang ◽  
Fabio Benedetti ◽  
Victor Onink ◽  
Meike Vogt

<p>Marine plastic pollution has been recognized as a serious issue of global concern with substantial risks for marine ecosystems, fisheries, and food supply to people. Yet, the amount of plastic entering the ocean from land and rivers is barely understood. Currently, estimates exist for the coastal plastic input in the year 2010 on country-level resolution and for riverine plastic input for the year 2017. Key limitations are the restricted data availability on plastic waste production, waste collection and waste management. In addition, the transport of mismanaged plastic via wind and rivers is currently not well understood.</p><p>We present a model to estimate the global plastic input to the ocean for the years 1990-2015 on a 0.1x0.1° raster. To this end, we first train a machine learning model (random forests) and a linear mixed model to predict plastic waste production on country level, using data of municipal waste collection and several socio-economic predictor variables. We then estimate the amount of plastic waste that enters the environment, using high resolution population data and waste management data of each country. This is combined with distance-based probabilities of land and river transport to obtain the annual amount of plastic entering the ocean on a 0.1x0.1° spatial resolution. Our results indicate that global plastic waste production increased roughly linearly between 1990 to 2015. However, estimating the amount of mismanaged waste and the subsequent transport towards the ocean is afflicted with high uncertainties.</p><p>We then use the estimated plastic input into the ocean to force several Lagrangian model runs. These Lagrangian simulations include different parameterizations of plastic beaching, in particular they vary in terms of the beaching probabilities and the assumed residence time of plastic on beaches. We present the global distribution of beached plastic and the size of the reservoir of beached plastic in these model scenarios.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (02) ◽  
pp. 1032-1038
Author(s):  
Arya Majidi

Population growth and urbanization have led to an increase in the rate of waste production, the lack of timely and proper management of which will have adverse effects on human life and the environment. Since most of the waste management costs are spent on waste collection and transportation, it is necessary to find solutions to control the huge costs of this sector. On the other hand, today, intelligent technologies are used globally as solutions to meet challenges in various fields such as agriculture to improve agro-industrial production, transportation, and waste management, which creates a concept called smart cities. One of the categories that has changed the concept of cities and made them have easier and smarter answers to various events and needs is the "Internet of Things", in which many cases and infrastructures with new hardware technologies and Software are integrated. Waste collection is no exception to this rule and efforts have been made to make it smarter. In this research, some of the latest innovations presented globally in order to make trash smarter have been examined.



2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Berliana Anggun Septiani ◽  
Dian Mita Arianie ◽  
Via Fide Aditya Andi Risman ◽  
Widhi Handayani ◽  
Istiarsi Saptuti Sri Kawuryan

The increase of solid waste production is a general problem in municipality, particularly of plastic waste. The durability, light-weight, anticorrosiveness, and inexpensiveness properties of plastic make it favorable to be used in daily life, including in Salatiga. However, plastic is one of some non-biodegradable materials that could lead to soil and water pollution as it contains toxic compounds such as aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, and organochlorine. Various studies in municipal solid waste management have been conducted. While those studies often applied various approaches separately, researches in regard to the role of stakeholders in municipal solid waste management are very limited. This study aims to explain the plastic waste management in Salatiga based on the role of the corresponding stakeholders. This qualitative study shows that there are four stakeholders who were involved in municipal plastic waste management in Salatiga. They were the households who generate wastes, the scavengers who sorts the wastes, Bank Sampah and collectors who have the same role in order to collect the wastes and treat the plastic wastes through reusing or recycling processes, and the government. Currently, efforts in waste treatment in Salatiga are focused on the system of collecting-tranferring-disposal mode, waste treatment by reuse and recycle processing, and landfilling. Reducing plastic consumption must take into account the sociocultural aspect and environmental awareness, as the people still interested to use plastic instead of using other materials in substitution. Finally, the role of government is central to educate the community in term of sorting activities and reducing waste production, build the capacity of Bank Sampah, and manage the role of scavengers and collectors. Other alternatives include creating synergy between the collectors and Bank Sampah, as well as ensuring final treatment of the unprocessed wastes disposed by collectors and Bank Sampah. 



2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6049
Author(s):  
Sun-Kyoung Shin ◽  
Namil Um ◽  
Yong-Jun Kim ◽  
Na-Hyeon Cho ◽  
Tae-Wan Jeon

With an increasing use of plastic, considerable plastic waste is generated, threatening the environment and public health. In particular, changes in living patterns in urban areas have significantly impacted the rate at which plastic waste increases every year. Thus, governments in many developed countries have implemented numerous policies to reduce plastic waste generation. Among them is the concept of circular economy that aims to protect the environment from plastic pollution and promote growth and innovation in industry and human life through overall changes in designing, producing, using, and recycling plastic products. The Korean government has implemented the Resource Circulation Act (RCA), which includes the concept of circular economy and resource efficiency policy for overall waste management. Following the concept of RCA, the Plastic Waste Control Plan (PWCP) was established for the comprehensive management of plastic waste. Therefore, this study introduces the goals and strategies of PWCP, which has a circulation system of four stages of production, consumption, discharge, and recycling, as well as the major roadblocks in the stages impeding the achievement of the goals and strategies. This study also suggests countermeasures at the government level for solving the major problems in the four stages.



2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (30_suppl) ◽  
pp. 89-89
Author(s):  
Sophia Li ◽  
Zhijie Ding ◽  
Jennifer H Lin ◽  
Chris Pericone ◽  
Ajay S. Behl ◽  
...  

89 Background: Although patients with CRPC frequently develop metastasis within 3 years following castration resistance, the impact of metastasis on HRU in these patients is not well understood. Methods: The Optum de-identified electronic health record database (1/1/2007 – 4/30/2016) was used in this single cohort observational study comparing HRU after metastasis with HRU before metastasis. The cohort included only non-metastatic CRPC (nmCRPC) patients who later developed metastasis. The pre-metastasis period spanned from nmCRPC identification to development of metastasis; the post-metastasis period spanned from metastasis until death or end of data availability. Per-patient per-month (PPPM) HRU was estimated during both pre- and post-metastasis periods by a generalized linear mixed model adjusted for log-transformed baseline PSA, age, testosterone levels, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. Results: With a mean time of 11 and 17 months of pre- and post-metastasis periods, respectively, 540 CRPC men were included, with a mean age at nmCRPC identification of 75 years. Higher HRU was seen across all service types during the post-metastasis period. There was a 2.5-fold increase in inpatient admissions and a 6.4-fold increase in inpatient length-of-stay in the post-metastasis period compared to the pre-metastasis period (p < 0.01). For emergency department (ED) visits, there was a 2.0-fold increase from the pre- to post-metastasis periods (p < 0.01). For observation unit visits, a 2.7-fold increase was seen in the post-metastasis period (p < 0.01). Finally, patients were 40% more likely to have an office visit after developing metastasis (p < 0.01). The PPPM use of intensive care unit, hospice or skilled nursing facility were too low for meaningful comparison between the pre- and post-metastasis periods. Conclusions: Shorter time to metastasis was observed in this cohort vs. other nmCRPC studies, likely due to delayed disease identification. CRPC patients incurred substantially higher HRU after developing metastasis, attributable to inpatient, ED, observation unit as well as office visits, suggesting that delaying metastasis may reduce or delay the increased HRU in patients with nmCRPC.



2019 ◽  
pp. 307-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Kalčíková ◽  
Andreja Žgajnar Gotvajn


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (06) ◽  
pp. 599-609
Author(s):  
Patrick E. Ejim ◽  
◽  
Jude Eze ◽  

The study investigated on the plastic pollution management: A panacea for Nigerias untapped waste to wealth growth: A study of some selected urban cities in south east Nigeria Enugu, Owerri, Awka and Umuahia. The specific objectives include to: examine the extent management of plastic waste have aided employment generation in some urban areas in South East, Nigeria, Nigeria determine the extent value chain network of plastic management has aided wealth creation in some urban areas in South East, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross sectional survey. The study instrument includes Garbage picking kits, health hazard prevention materials, waste selector machines, questionnaire, video coverage and security kits to help the research attendants for easy identification. Procedure: The study identified various dump sites across the cities mentioned. Out of a population of 6,454 staff, the sample size of 1096 was chosen after applying the Freund and Williams formula for the determination of adequate sample size. Out of the sample size of 912 returned the questionnaire and accurately filled. That gave 83 percent response rate. The validity of the instrument was tested using content analysis and the result was good. The reliability was tested using the Pearson correlation coefficient (r). It gave a reliability co-efficient of 0.85 which was also good. Data was presented and analyzed by mean score (3.0 and above agreed while below 3.0 disagreed) and standard deviation using Sprint Likert Scale. The hypotheses were analyzed using Z- test statistics tool. The findings of the reveals that management of plastic waste has positive effect on employment generation in some urban areas in South East, Nigeria r (85, n = 1096) = 24.471, p < 0.05 value chain network of plastic management had positive effect on wealth creation in some urban areas in South East, Nigeria r (85, n = 1096) = 46.882, p < 0.05. The study concluded that in order for solid waste management and plastic production systems to coevolved towards maximizing recycling as a strategy for plastic waste management. The study recommended among others, that there is a need to formulate and enforce a plastic bag regulation primarily to do away with the menace and to guide any such endeavors.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Gnann ◽  
Shungu Garaba ◽  
Oliver Zielinski

&lt;p&gt; Plastic pollution has a big impact on living organisms. At the same time, plastics are everywhere in our daily life. For example, plastic is used in packaging, construction of buildings, cars, electronics, agriculture and many other fields. In fact, plastic production has been increasing rapidly since the 1950s. However, plastic waste management strategies have not adapted accordingly to these rising amounts, which end up in the blue and green planet. Unfortunately, for developing nations it is even more complicated and strategies are still developing. Here we investigate the possibilities of plastic waste detection in Cambodia focusing on cities, rivers and coastal areas. Very fine geo-spatial resolution Red-Green-Blue (RGB) drone imagery was captured over regions of interest in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. To this date, techniques of detecting plastic litter are based on RGB imagery analyses, generating descriptors such as colour, shape, size and form. However, we believe by adding infrared wavebands additional descriptors, such as polymer composition or type can be retrieved for improved classification of plastic litter. Furthermore, remote sensing technologies will be merged with object-based deep learning methodologies to enhance identification of plastic waste items, thus creating a robust learning system. Due to the size and complexity of this problem, automated detection, tracking, characterization and quantification of plastic pollution is a key aspect to improve waste management strategies. We therefore explore multispectral band combinations relevant to the detection of plastic waste and operational approaches in imagery processing. This work will contribute towards algorithm development for analysis of video datasets enhancing future near real-time detection of plastic litter. Eventually, this scientific evidence-based tool can be utilized by stakeholders, policymakers and citizens.&lt;/p&gt;



2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (157) ◽  
pp. 109-121
Author(s):  
E. Mykhailova

Тhe article is devoted to the global environmental problem of plastic waste pollution. Now, about 9 billion tons of primary plastic have been produced. Of this amount, 6.3 billion tons is plastic waste, of which 9 % was recycled, 12 % incinerated, and 79 % accumulated in landfills or in the environment. The main feature of plastic materials is their stability. Once in the environment as waste, plastic can be in its original state for more than 450 years. The purpose of the article is to study the current state of production and use of plastics, as well as the field of plastic waste management; identification of perspective methods for solving the problem of plastic pollution. Plastics are organic macromolecular compounds that have high quality characteristics. Due to this, they became widespread. There are different types of plastics: thermoplastics, thermosets, foams and bioplastics. Currently, 40% of plastic is used once, after which it is discarded. Under the influence of various factors in the environment plastic slowly breaks down into small fragments, known as microplastics. Microplastic particles get into the soil, water, and through food chains can enter the human body. Potentially microplastics can negatively affect the human body. To solve the problem of accumulation of plastic waste in the environment, many countries around the world, including Ukraine, are implementing a waste management system based on the European waste management hierarchy. The hierarchy reflects five approaches to waste management: Removal (waste disposal and incineration without energy production), Recovery (waste incineration with energy production), Recycling (waste conversion into secondary raw materials for reuse), Reuse (waste reuse without recycling) and Prevention (waste amount minimization). Disposal is the least efficient way of waste management, and recycling and prevention are the most effective ways. Keywords: plastic, waste, pollution, environment, landfill, recycling.



Author(s):  
Thanapat Thutsaringkarnsakul ◽  

Many countries already have problems with waste management, but when the COVID-19 outbreak happens, the existing problems are worsened. This review aims to examine how mismanagement of medical and plastic waste affects the environment and people, especially those who work in healthcare facilities. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was clear that the majority of issues stemmed from mismanagement of plastic waste. For example, plastic waste can be seen in various places, such as the deepest oceanic floor, The Mariana trench, which is proved by microplastics found in amphipods’ digestive tract living down there. Apart from environmental effects, the economy is also affected by plastic pollution as the tourism business has decreased in Korea and USA due to the increasing amount of plastic waste. While normal plastic waste can largely affect society, medical wastes seem to pose more severe consequences as medical wastes might be contaminated, pathologic, and radioactive. However, during the pandemic, the usage of both medical and plastic waste has increased in general. Mismanaged waste also carries COVID-19 like other pathogens, and the virus can survive on it for a long period of time, making any mismanaged waste a risk factor. Incinerated ashes from medical waste used for fighting the virus can also cause pollution as they contain heavy metals. In conclusion, mismanaged plastic waste mostly affects the environment, while mismanaged medical waste might carry harmful pathogens, including the COVID-19, putting people at risk. More actions need to be done to improve the effectiveness of waste management procedures.



Author(s):  
Nguyen Trung Thang ◽  
Duong Thi Phuong Anh ◽  
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh

Plastic pollution has become a major global environmental problem. The amount of plastic waste, including microplastics discharged into the environment, is on the increase, causing harm to the environment, ecosystems, especially marine ecosystems, entering the food chain, and affecting human health. Recognizing the environmental risks of plastic waste, the State has issued many legal documents on plastic waste management such as the Law on Environmental Protection (2014, 2020); Law on Environmental Protection Tax 2010; National environmental protection strategy up to 2020, Vision 2030; National strategy on integrated solid waste management up to 2025, Vision 2050, among others. However, there are still many shortcomings to plastic waste management in Vietnam, e.g. there are no effective solutions in reducing, sorting, collecting, reusing, recycling and treating waste. More importantly, public awareness and understanding of microplastic pollution in Vietnam still need improving. Therefore, pollution caused by microplastics needs to be studied and evaluated in relation to its origin, current situation, impacts and management policies.



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