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Reducing Uncertainty and Confronting Ignorance about the Possible Impacts of Weathering Plastic in the Marine Environment
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This paper argues that weathering of plastic in the ocean is poorly understood but critically important, as it generates microplastics, nanoplastics, and releases chemical additives over time. Researchers highlight that biofilms growing on ocean plastic affect how it weathers, sinks, and interacts with marine life, yet this process has been underinvestigated. The study calls for laboratory experiments, field monitoring, and modeling to reduce uncertainty about the hazards of aging plastic debris in marine environments.
Plastic in the global oceans fulfills two of the three conditions for pollution to pose a planetary boundary threat because it is causing planetary-scale exposure that is not readily reversible. Plastic is a planetary boundary threat if it is having a currently unrecognized disruptive effect on a vital Earth system process. Discovering possible unknown effects is likely to be aided by achieving a fuller understanding of the environmental fate of plastic. Weathering of plastic generates microplastic, releases chemical additives, and likely also produces nanoplastic and chemical fragments cleaved from the polymer backbone. However, weathering of plastic in the marine environment is not well understood in terms of time scales for fragmentation and degradation, the evolution of particle morphology and properties, and hazards of the chemical mixture liberated by weathering. Biofilms that form and grow on plastic affect weathering, vertical transport, toxicity, and uptake of plastic by marine organisms and have been underinvestigated. Laboratory studies, field monitoring, and models of the impact of weathering on plastic debris are needed to reduce uncertainty in hazard and risk assessments for known and suspected adverse effects. However, scientists and decision makers must also recognize that plastic in the oceans may have unanticipated effects about which we are currently ignorant. Possible impacts that are currently unknown can be confronted by vigilant monitoring of plastic in the oceans and discovery-oriented research related to the possible effects of weathering plastic.
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Weathering pathways and protocols for environmentally relevant microplastics and nanoplastics: What are we missing?
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This review highlights a major gap in microplastics research: most lab studies use brand-new, pristine plastic particles, but microplastics in the real world have been weathered by sunlight, water, and biological activity. Weathered microplastics behave differently, releasing more chemicals and interacting with organisms in ways that fresh plastics do not. Only about 10% of published studies have used aged microplastics, meaning current risk assessments may not reflect the true dangers of environmental microplastic exposure.
Simulated experimental investigation of microplastic weathering in marine environment
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Researchers simulated microplastic weathering under marine conditions, finding that exposure to UV light, saltwater, and mechanical abrasion progressively degraded plastic surfaces, increased surface roughness, and enhanced the adsorption capacity of contaminants onto microplastic particles.
The importance of both physical aging and chemical weathering for the environmental fate of plastic
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Researchers investigated the interplay between physical aging and chemical weathering in plastics and their combined effects on microplastic generation, finding that physical aging processes — distinct from photo-oxidation — play an underappreciated role in determining the environmental fate of plastic materials.
Abiotic weathering of plastic: Experimental contributions towards understanding the formation of microplastics and other plastic related particulate pollutants
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Scientists studied how the five most common types of plastic break down under realistic environmental conditions involving UV light, temperature changes, and humidity. They found that weathering follows complex, uneven pathways and that the microplastics produced can have very different physical properties depending on the additives in the original plastic. This matters because it means microplastics in the environment are more varied and unpredictable than lab studies using uniform particles suggest, complicating efforts to assess their health risks.
Influence of thermooxidative degradation on the in situ fate of polyethylene in temperate coastal waters.
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Polyethylene films were artificially aged to four levels of thermooxidative degradation, then deployed in seawater cages off the Swedish coast for 12 weeks to track in-situ degradation and fragmentation. The study found that pre-weathering significantly accelerated further deterioration in the marine environment, with implications for how plastic debris breaks down into microplastics.
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