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Plastic to microplastic in the United Arab Emirates – plastic bottle caps in a hot, arid environment
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This study assessed how plastic bottle caps degrade in the hot, arid conditions of the United Arab Emirates, finding accelerated photo-oxidation and surface hardening compared to temperate climates. Hot climates speed the fragmentation of plastic litter into microplastics, with implications for regions where outdoor plastic use is high.
The degradation of plastic bottle tops as a common contributor to plastic waste in the environment was assessed under the hot, arid conditions of the hinterland of the United Arab Emirates. 500 bottles tops were collected from 5 different locations in the Al Ain area and their surface oxidation index was determined through FT-IR measurements. The hardness of pristine bottle tops and bottle tops aged in the environment was compared.
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Plastic Bottle Tops—A Major Source of Plastic in the Terrestrial Environment of the United Arab Emirates
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Plastic bottle caps left out in the hot, sunny climate of the UAE break down faster than you'd think—sunlight makes them brittle, and just one hailstorm was enough to shatter them into tiny microplastic pieces that scatter into soil and, eventually, our food and water. The researchers suggest a simple fix already used in Europe: designing bottles so caps stay attached instead of littering the ground and breaking apart, cutting down on this source of environmental microplastic pollution.
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Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.