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The complex nature of the urban plastic soup
Summary
Researchers tracked nearly 10,000 plastic items across Amsterdam's waterways over 12 months and found that plastic accumulation and transport follow distinct spatial patterns driven by different urban environmental features, with most plastic types showing no simple correlation with neighborhood characteristics, underscoring the complexity of identifying true urban plastic sources.
Millions of metric tonnes of plastic enter aquatic ecosystems annually, with urban environments acting as a primary source. Within cities, waterways such as rivers, streams, and canals collect and transport land-based plastic waste outside the city boundaries. While cities are a clear source of aquatic plastic pollution, the understanding of processes governing the journey of plastic through cities and the drivers of transport and accumulation within cities is limited. Here, we map the spatial distribution and temporal variability of plastic accumulation and transport across Amsterdam by using a database of nearly 10,000 monitored plastic items with monthly monitoring sessions between November 2022 and October 2023. Plastic accumulation and transport are neither uniform in space nor constant in time. We further identify and explore the explanatory power of urban environmental features within 250 m of the monitoring locations that may drive spatial patterns in plastic accumulation and transport. We reduced 87 urban environmental features to 8 principal components representing overarching urban contexts such as hospitality and public transport. By correlating these principal components with our plastic observations, we identify that spatial patterns differ substantially between the accumulation of plastics and the transport of plastics. While some plastic types are ubiquitous, others are restricted to specific contexts characterized by distinct combinations of urban environmental features. Most plastic types show no significant correlations with principal components, highlighting the complex nature and ubiquity of plastic in all urban contexts. We highlight that item-specific data is necessary to disentangle the complexities of urban plastic pollution. By analyzing which items tend to co-exist, potential clustering of items, and their abundance in the context of specific urban environmental features, we are getting closer to detecting the true sources and drivers of urban plastic pollution.