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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > Is global plastic pollution approaching an irreversible tipping point?

    Is global plastic pollution approaching an irreversible tipping point?

    • Last Update: 2021-08-06
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Researchers from Sweden, Norway and Germany published a new study in the journal Science on July 2 that the current rate of global plastic emissions may trigger an irreversible impact


    Plastic can be seen everywhere on the earth: from deserts and mountain tops to deep sea and Arctic snow


    Matthew MacLeod, a professor at Stockholm University and the lead author of the study, said: "Plastic is deeply entrenched in our society, and it leaks to all corners of the environment, even if the waste treatment infrastructure is good.


    For Mine Tekman, a doctoral student at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and co-author of the study, this difference is not surprising, because plastic pollution is not only an environmental problem, but also A "political and economic" issue


    "The world is promoting technical solutions for recycling and removing plastic from the environment


    Irreversible pollutants in the environment of remote areas 

    When the amount of plastic emissions exceeds the amount removed through clean-up operations and the natural environmental process (through a multi-step process called weathering), the plastic accumulates in the environment


    "The weathering of plastics is caused by many different processes, and we have made great progress in understanding them


    Annika Jahnke, a professor at RWTH Aachen University, researcher at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, and co-author, explained:

    "In a remote environment, plastic fragments cannot be cleaned, and weathered large plastic objects will inevitably lead to the generation of a large number of micro-nanoplastic particles and the leaching of chemicals and other chemicals that are deliberately added to the plastic, breaking the plastic polymer backbone


    A potential tipping point for irreversible environmental damage 

    Plastic pollution can not only cause environmental damage and toxic effects through entanglement of animals, but also cause widespread and even global impacts along with other environmental stressors in remote areas


    All in all, the two authors believe that the current threat of plastic emissions may cause irreversible effects on a global scale in the future, which is a "strong motivation" for taking tailor-made actions to reduce emissions


    "Now, we are filling the environment with more and more irreversible plastic pollution


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    Original publication:

    Matthew MacLeod, Hans Peter H.



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