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Plastitar: A new threat for coastal environments
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Researchers described 'plastitar,' a novel coastal material formed when oil tar residues solidify and incorporate microplastics, sand, and organic debris on rocky shores, identifying it as an emerging threat to coastal ecosystems because it can concentrate and slowly release both hydrocarbons and plastic pollutants.
Oil residues have been frequently found on the coasts all over the world as a result of different accidental releases. Their partial evaporation and solidification onto the coastal rocks can produce the formation of a new solid structure forming an agglomerate with other materials, mainly microplastics (though wood, glass, sand and rocks were also found), yielding to a new plastic formation, name herein for the first time as "plastitar". These new formations have been found in several of the islands of the Canary Islands archipelago (Spain). Their study has shown that these new formations can be permanently attached to the rock, occupying even a 56% of the sampled area with an heterogeneous distribution. It was also observed that the studied plastitar was composed mainly of tar and polyethylene (90.6% of the studied particles) and polypropylene (9.4% of the studied particles) microplastics, primarily fragments (82.5%), pellets (15.7%) and lines (1.8%). The ever more frequent presence of plastics and, in particular, microplastics in coastal environments can lead to the common occurrence of these new plastic formations (probably present in other parts of the world), which long-term effects on the coasts should be further investigated.
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Plastitar: A new plastic formation that threatens coastal marine environments
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Researchers described a new plastic formation called 'plastitar' — a mixture of petroleum tar and plastic debris found fused together on rocky shores. This novel form of marine plastic pollution represents a previously undescribed threat to coastal ecosystems, both as a physical contaminant and as a potential source of chemical leachates. The discovery adds to the growing list of novel plastic forms being identified in marine environments worldwide.
Plastitar in the Mediterranean Sea: New records and the first geochemical characterization of these novel formations.
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This study reports the widespread occurrence of 'plastitar' — a novel formation of plastic debris fused with petroleum tar — along Mediterranean coastlines, following its initial description from the Canary Islands. The authors found hundreds of plastic particles per kilogram of tar surveyed and characterized the geochemistry of these formations, representing a new type of plastic pollution in coastal environments.
New Plastitar Record for the Mediterranean Sea: Characterization of Plastics and Tar from the Salento Peninsula (Ionian Sea)
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This study characterized 'plastitar' blocks — fused mixtures of tar, microplastics, and natural debris — collected from the Ionian coast of southern Italy, identifying the polymer types and petroleum-based compounds embedded within them. These hybrid pollution objects are a largely overlooked form of coastal contamination that concentrate both plastic and hydrocarbon pollutants in marine shoreline environments.
New Plastitar Record for the Mediterranean Sea: Characterization of Plastics and Tar from the Salento Peninsula (Ionian Sea)
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Researchers documented a new occurrence of Plastitar -- aggregates of tar, microplastics, and natural materials -- on the Salento Peninsula coastline of the Ionian Sea, characterizing the plastic and tar components using spectroscopic and chemical analysis. The study adds to Mediterranean records of this composite pollution form and discusses its ecological implications for coastal and marine biota.
Plastitar records in marine coastal environments worldwide from 1973 to 2023
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Plastitar — pieces of plastic fused into tar residues on rocky coastlines — has been present globally since at least 1973, and a literature review combined with new field surveys found it on coastlines across the Indian Ocean, Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific. The distribution closely follows major oil shipping routes, suggesting that crude oil releases from tankers bind floating plastic litter and cement it onto shorelines, creating a previously overlooked and long-lived form of coastal plastic pollution.
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