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Landfill: Time capsule of plastic waste but microplastic generation source
Summary
Landfills aren't just holding onto our plastic trash—they're actively breaking it down into microplastics and leaking them into the environment, especially in coastal areas of China where nearly a third of the country's microplastic pollution is concentrated. Even with major cleanup efforts, these coastal hotspots would barely improve by 2050, meaning the tiny plastic particles that can end up in our water, soil, and food chain will keep spreading unless we target the highest-risk sites specifically rather than using one-size-fits-all solutions.
Landfills act as critical terrestrial sources of microplastics, functioning as “leaky time capsules” that continuously releasing pollutants into surrounding ecosystems. Here, we established a microplastic-generated prediction model to dynamically quantify microplastic generation in landfills. By calibrating 31 years of in-situ tracking at a large-scale landfill together with a nationwide field investigation across 37 landfills, we systematically identified the spatial patterns of microplastic generation in China. East China acts as primary hotspot contributing 45.6% of the total microplastic stock. Landfills in coastal areas account for nearly one-third of the national microplastic stock despite representing only 8.3% of total sites. Although aggressive source reduction and in situ remediation reduce national microplastic by 46.4% by 2050, high-risk landfills in coastal areas remain insensitive to these measures. These findings highlight the necessity of differentiated regional control measures to effectively mitigate landfill-sourced microplastic pollution.