The ubiquitous pollution of the environment with microplastics - a diverse suite of contaminants - is of growing concern for science and currently receives considerable public, political, and academic attention. The potential impact of microplastics in the environment has prompted a great deal of re...

The widespread ocean contamination by plastic materials is cause of increasing concerns on the potential detrimental consequences they might produce on marine ecosystems. Although many recent studies addressed ingestion and effects of micro/nanoplastics on most marine taxa, the risks posed by leache...

Most thermoplastics contain a variety of additive chemicals that can represent a high percentage of the final plastic materials (up to 50%). The current study characterised the chemical content of freshwater and marine leachates produced from CTR, PP, PET, PS and PVC, and assessed their adverse effe...

Crumb rubber granulate (CRG) produced from end of life tires (ELTs) is commonly applied on indoor and outdoor synthetic turf pitches (STPs), playgrounds, safety surfaces and walkways. In addition to fillers, stabilizers, cross-linking agents and secondary components (e.g. pigments, oils, resins, fib...

After three years of dedicated microplastics research, four projects (BASEMAN, EPHEMARE, PLASTOX and WEATHER-MIC) funded under the framework of JPI Oceans have presented their results. The projects focused on defining baselines and standards for microplastics analysis, understanding the ecotoxicolog...

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are a focal point for the removal of microplastic (MP) particles before they are discharged into aquatic environments. WWTPs are capable of removing substantial quantities of larger MP particles but are inefficient in removing particles with any one dimension of l...

Many small- or medium-sized communities in Northern Europe employ only primary wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and effluent discharges can be a relevant source of pollution. The current study combines monitoring and modelling approaches to investigate concentrations, influent patterns, size dist...

Salt marshes in urban watersheds are prone to microplastics (MP) pollution due to their hydrological characteristics and exposure to urban runoff, but little is known about MP distributions in species from these habitats. In the current study, MP occurrence was determined in six benthic invertebrate...