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Characteristics, fate, and impact of marine plastic debris exposed to sunlight: A review
Summary
This review pulls together existing research on what happens when plastic trash floats in the ocean and gets baked by sunlight: it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces (microplastics) while releasing chemical additives and soaking up other pollutants like a sponge. This matters because those tiny plastic fragments and the toxic chemicals they carry can harm marine life, and since seafood is part of many people's diets, this pollution may eventually make its way onto our plates too.
The increase of plastic production from the middle of the twentieth century was inevitably followed by an increase in the amount of plastic dumped in the natural environment. There, the plastic debris are exposed to sunlight, temperature, humidity, and physical stress. This can induce photo-oxidative and thermal degradation. This review discusses the mechanism of plastics UV weathering and its characteristics. Comparison of the photodegradation rate and physico-chemical properties are made according to the weathering mode (natural/accelerated) and medium (air/water). Since the photodegradation can lead to plastics fragmentation, this phenomenon is described along with the methodologies used in literature to evaluate the fragmentation. The impact of the photodegraded plastic debris on the marine environment is also presented in term of (i) photodegradation products and stabilizers leakage, (ii) organic pollutants accumulation, transfer, and leakage, and (iii) toxicity on marine organisms.