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Waste Polystyrene Degradation in the World Oceans: Newly identified sources of Contamination

Research Square (Research Square) 2020 2 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 20 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Katsuhiko Saido, Hideki Kimukai, Koshiro Koizumi, Bum Gun Kwon, Bum Gun Kwon, Bum Gun Kwon, Bum Gun Kwon, Katsuhiko Saido, Katsuhiko Saido, Hideki Kimukai, Katsuhiko Saido, Yōichi Kodera, Yōichi Kodera, Yōichi Kodera, Akifumi Okabe, Yōichi Kodera, Akifumi Okabe, Seon-Yong Chung, Koshiro Koizumi, Hideki Kimukai, Hideki Kimukai, Hideki Kimukai, Hideki Kimukai, Hideki Kimukai, Hideki Kimukai, Hideki Kimukai, Hideki Kimukai, Seon-Yong Chung, Seon-Yong Chung, Hideto Sato, Hideto Sato, Hideto Sato, Hideto Sato, Hideto Sato, Hideto Sato, Hideto Sato, Hideto Sato, Seon-Yong Chung, Akifumi Okabe, Akifumi Okabe, Seon-Yong Chung, Akifumi Okabe, Akifumi Okabe, Akifumi Okabe, Akifumi Okabe, Koshiro Koizumi, Koshiro Koizumi, Bum Gun Kwon, Koshiro Koizumi, Masahiko Nishimura, Katsuhiko Saido, Bum Gun Kwon, Kohei Takatama, Kohei Takatama, Kohei Takatama, Kohei Takatama, Kohei Takatama, Kohei Takatama, Bum Gun Kwon, Katsuhiko Saido, Bum Gun Kwon, Bum Gun Kwon, Seon-Yong Chung, Seon-Yong Chung, Seon-Yong Chung, Seon-Yong Chung, Seon-Yong Chung, Seon-Yong Chung, Masahiko Nishimura, Masahiko Nishimura, Masahiko Nishimura, Sibel Menteşe Sibel Menteşe Sibel Menteşe

Summary

This is a third version of a study on waste polystyrene degradation in world oceans, tracking breakdown kinetics and identifying contamination sources through global field surveys of sand and water samples over several decades.

Polymers

Study Type Environmental

Abstract Since 1970, lumps of plastic breakage into micro/nano pieces has been clearly shown a serious and large source of ocean pollution. To clarify in detail the course of this impact, thermoplastics were decomposed at natural conditions kinetically. And field surveys conducted on four thousand sand and water samples including these at deep-sea sites from around the world during the period, 2000 to 2015. All samples were found to contain styrene oligomers (SOs), that had been generated from drifting polystyrene (PS) degradation. Lumps of plastic not only break up into micro/nano-fragments but also degrade into their basic structure units of plastic. From 1950 to 2015, 4.2 billion metric tons (MT) of SOs were shown to be generated from drifting PS. The monomers are newly and highly significant source of pollution of marine ecosystem directly and global warming of planet and should be given the utmost serious attention.

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