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Plastic pollution in shooting ranges and warfare areas - an overlooked environmental issue
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Shooting ranges, military training grounds, and conflict zones are largely overlooked as sources of plastic and microplastic pollution, despite decades of spent cartridges, plastic wads, and landmine components breaking down in place. The study reviews how these plastic materials degrade over time into microplastics that contaminate surrounding soil and water, and notes that recreational activities like paintball and airsoft add to the problem. Recognizing these sites as pollution hotspots is important for more complete accounting of where microplastics enter the environment.
Shooting ranges and military training fields, including warfare-impacted areas, have been widely recognized as environmentally impacted zones by inorganic and organic contamination, such as heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or explosive-related compounds. However, the possible contamination by plastics and microplastics in soil has been widely overlooked despite potential plastic sources, such as shotgun cartridges, plastic wads or landmines. Due to how these activities occur, plastics have remained in the field for decades or centuries, favoring their conversion from macro to microplastics, polluting the soil and water resources. Moreover, shooting and recreational activities such as airsoft or paintball practices could also be a substantial source of plastics to ecosystems; once shot, pellets can have conventional or biodegradable plastics in their composition, and there left in the environment, favouring impacts on soil properties. Although some initiatives have emerged to avoid the use of single-use plastics in shotgun ammunition, alternative materials (biodegradable plastics) can also be a potential risk, favouring the heavy metal bioavailability of shot pellets. These emerging pollutants should also be considered in these areas to understand if they could be a potential source of micro- and nanoplastics to the environment and, therefore, an environmental concern that requires changes at industrial and regulatory levels.
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Paint - A key source of microplastics to the environment: Fate, effects, and mitigation strategies
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Paint chips and coatings are a major, often overlooked source of tiny plastic particles (microplastics) that wash into our air, water, and soil as they weather and break down over time. This matters because these particles can end up in the food and water we consume, and scientists are still working to understand the health effects of ongoing microplastic exposure. This paper reviews existing research on how paint pollution happens and explores ways to reduce it, such as better product design and disposal practices.
Sources, Types, and Occurrences of Microplastics in Soil, Water, and Air
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This review summarizes the sources, types, and distribution of microplastics found in water bodies, sediments, soil, and air worldwide. Researchers found that microplastic pollution is widespread across all environmental compartments, with significant variation by region and source. The study emphasizes the need for comprehensive waste management strategies to reduce plastic consumption and improve recycling and disposal systems.
Plastic pellets, powders, and flakes - A key source of microplastics to the environment: Fate, effects, and mitigation strategies
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Tiny plastic pellets, powders, and flakes used to make everyday plastic products are spilling into our environment during manufacturing and shipping, breaking down into the microplastics that end up in our water, soil, and food. This review pulls together existing research on how these plastic bits travel through ecosystems and outlines ways to stop the leaks before they happen, which matters because reducing microplastics at the source is one of the most effective ways to limit our long-term exposure to them.
The potential release of microplastics from paint fragments: Characterizing sources, occurrence and ecological impacts
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This review examines paint fragments as a significant but often overlooked source of microplastic pollution, coming from deteriorating building coatings, road markings, and ship hulls. Beyond the plastic particles themselves, paint fragments can release toxic biocides and heavy metals that harm aquatic and terrestrial organisms. The findings highlight paint as a source of microplastics that people may encounter through water, air, and food, but which receives far less attention than packaging or textile sources.
Microplastic Pollution: An In-depth Review of its Sources, Formation Mechanisms, Quantification Techniques, Environmental Impacts, Toxicological Effects and Remediation Strategies
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This comprehensive review covers the full scope of microplastic pollution, from where microplastics come from and how they form, to how scientists detect and measure them. Researchers summarized the environmental and health impacts of microplastic contamination across ecosystems including water, soil, and air. The study also evaluates current cleanup and remediation strategies, highlighting the need for coordinated global efforts to address this widespread form of pollution.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.