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Freshwater Microplastics: Challenges for Regulation and Management
Summary
This book chapter reviews the regulatory and management challenges posed by microplastic contamination of freshwater systems, noting that most policy attention has focused on marine environments. The authors call for freshwater-specific monitoring frameworks and coordinated international action to reduce plastic inputs to rivers and lakes.
The accumulation of plastic debris in aquatic environments is one of the major but least studied human pressures on aquatic ecosystems. Besides the general waste burden in waterbodies, (micro)plastic debris gives rise to ecological and social problems. Related to marine ecosystems, these problems are already in the center of interest of science, policy, and public. The United Nations Environment Programme, for instance, drafted a joint report on "marine plastic debris and microplastics," and the European Community included the issue into the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive, descriptor 10 "marine litter."
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