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Emerging Challenges from Plastics-Driven Climate Change
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This review examines how the plastic life cycle — from fossil fuel extraction through manufacturing to disposal — generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, while environmental microplastics disrupt ecosystems and reduce ocean carbon sequestration, creating a bidirectional link between plastic pollution and climate change.
Abundant plastic waste is projected to exacerbate climate change due to the substantial greenhouse gas emissions generated throughout the plastic life cycle—including raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal. As micro- and nanoplastics are increasingly detected across environmental compartments, they are contributing to significant ecological impacts, such as disrupting ecosystems and diminishing the ocean’s carbon sequestration capacity. Growing evidence has also intensified concerns about public health, as plastics-driven climate change and microplastic pollution facilitate the transport of contaminants, including emerging pollutants of concern such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This study aims to identify the key issues linking plastics-driven climate change to environmental and public health effects. The specific objectives are to: (a) review the role of microplastics (MPs) in influencing climate change; (b) examine how transformed plastic polymers interact with recalcitrant contaminants, including antibiotic-resistant bacteria and PFAS; and (c) propose remediation strategies and recommend future research directions to address the escalating challenges associated with increasing global plastic production. Additionally, the paper presents a recent case study on the influence of MPs on antibiotic resistance and discusses persistent challenges in mitigating emerging public health risks posed by microplastic (MP) pollution and associated contaminants.
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Spatial Patterns of Plastic Lifecycle Emissions and Their Contribution to Global Climate Drivers- A Geographical Study
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This review paper pulls together existing research showing that plastic production and waste, from oil extraction to ocean breakdown, adds significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, not just fossil fuels alone. It also highlights how ocean microplastics disrupt marine systems that normally absorb carbon, meaning our plastic habits may be quietly worsening climate change while current recycling policies fall short of fixing the problem.
Plastics and climate change: an overview of two connected global problems
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Researchers reviewed the interconnections between global plastic production and climate change, finding that plastics' lifecycle emissions—concentrated in early production stages—and ocean plastic pollution together account for significant greenhouse gas contributions, and that meaningful solutions require treating the two crises as one integrated problem rather than separately.
Plastic Pollution and Climate Change: Double Trouble
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This accessible review explains how plastics and climate change reinforce each other — plastic production emits greenhouse gases, warming accelerates microplastic release from the environment, and microplastics themselves disrupt ecosystems that regulate climate — calling for integrated policy solutions.
Contribution of plastic and microplastic to global climate change and their conjoining impacts on the environment - A review
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This review examines how the entire lifecycle of plastics -- from production to disposal -- contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, with plastic production projected to account for up to 13% of Earth's carbon budget by 2050. The paper also discusses how microplastics in the ocean disrupt carbon-absorbing marine organisms, creating a feedback loop that worsens both climate change and the spread of toxic plastic particles through the food chain.
Climate change and microplastics: a two-way interaction
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This review characterises the bidirectional relationship between microplastics and climate change: plastics production and degradation generate greenhouse gases, while rising temperatures and changing precipitation alter MP distribution and toxicity in ecosystems. It calls for integrated strategies that address both plastic pollution and climate change.
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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.