Plastics and beaches: A degrading relationship

Plastic debris in Earth’s oceans presents a serious environmental issue because breakdown by chemical weathering and mechanical erosion is minimal at sea. Following deposition on beaches, plastic materials are exposed to UV radiation and physical processes controlled by wind, current, wave and tide...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine pollution bulletin 2009, Vol.58 (1), p.80-84
Main Authors: Corcoran, Patricia L., Biesinger, Mark C., Grifi, Meriem
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Bathing Beaches
Beaches
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics
Environmental Pollutants - analysis
Environmental Pollutants - chemistry
Environmental Pollutants - metabolism
Exact sciences and technology
FTIR
Hawaii
Marine
Marine environment
Natural water pollution
Other wastes and particular components of wastes
Oxidation-Reduction
Particle Size
Plastic debris
Plastics - analysis
Plastics - chemistry
Plastics - metabolism
Plastics - radiation effects
Pollution
Pollution, environment geology
Seawaters, estuaries
SEM
Wastes
Water treatment and pollution
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Summary:Plastic debris in Earth’s oceans presents a serious environmental issue because breakdown by chemical weathering and mechanical erosion is minimal at sea. Following deposition on beaches, plastic materials are exposed to UV radiation and physical processes controlled by wind, current, wave and tide action. Plastic particles from Kauai’s beaches were sampled to determine relationships between composition, surface textures, and plastics degradation. SEM images indicated that beach plastics feature both mechanically eroded and chemically weathered surface textures. Granular oxidation textures were concentrated along mechanically weakened fractures and along the margins of the more rounded plastic particles. Particles with oxidation textures also produced the most intense peaks in the lower wavenumber region of FTIR spectra. The textural results suggest that plastic debris is particularly conducive to both chemical and mechanical breakdown in beach environments, which cannot be said for plastics in other natural settings on Earth.
ISSN:0025-326X
1879-3363
DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2008.08.022