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Terrestrial fugitive plastic packaging: the blind spot in resolving plastic pollution
Summary
This commentary identifies terrestrial fugitive plastic packaging — plastic that escapes into the environment from land-based sources — as a neglected category in plastic pollution accounting. The authors argue that focusing only on ocean plastics ignores the vast amounts of plastic dispersing through soils, roadsides, and inland waterways.
An opinion piece highlighting the role plastic packaging, particularly single-use commodity packaging, contributes to global plastic pollution. The article specially unpacks the quantities found on land in comparison to those found in the marine environment. While land-based plastic pollution is approximately three times bigger in terms of scale, the article notes that current research and development and policy strategies are solely focused upon marine-based pollution. The article seeks to address this by proposing strategies to readdress the balance in attention and to engage academia, government and the public in a polyvalent effort towards resolving the ecological damage being caused to our environment.