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The discharge of certain amounts of industrial microplastic from a production plant into the River Danube is permitted by the Austrian legislation

Environmental Pollution 2015 234 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 45 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Aaron Lechner, Aaron Lechner, Aaron Lechner, Aaron Lechner, David Ramler

Summary

Researchers identified the first documented point source of industrial microplastic pollution in a freshwater river system — a production plant discharging into an Austrian Danube tributary — and found that current Austrian regulations permit substantial quantities of industrial microplastic to legally enter waterways due to overly generous discharge thresholds.

Numerous studies have quantified the amount of plastic litter in aquatic ecosystems and tried to assess its impacts and threats. This reflects a rising awareness of plastic as an environmental problem. As a next logical step, identifying and regulating the sources must be in the focus of scientific efforts. We report on a spillage of industrial microplastic (IMP) from a production plant situated at an Austrian Danube tributary. This is the first identified point source of IMP litter in freshwater systems. However, due to generous thresholds established by the Austrian government substantial amounts of IMP are legally introduced into running waters.

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