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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to How soon will landfilled plastics integrate into the geological carbon cycle?
ClearMicroplastics in Landfill Bodies: Abundance, Spatial Distribution and Effect of Landfill Age
Researchers examined microplastic distribution in landfill refuse across different age sections, finding that older landfill areas contain higher microplastic abundances, demonstrating that plastic waste progressively fragments into microplastics during long-term burial.
The evolution and fate of waste plastics in landfills subject to physical and biochemical processes - implications for microplastics
This review examines how plastic waste in landfills is physically and biochemically transformed over time, with a focus on the conditions that generate microplastics from buried macroplastics. The authors explore implications for microplastic leaching and environmental contamination from landfill sites.
Effect of landfill age on the physical and chemical characteristics of waste plastics/microplastics in a waste landfill sites
Researchers examined how landfill age affects waste plastic degradation, finding that older landfills contained smaller, more fragmented microplastics with increased surface oxidation and crystallinity changes, revealing the progressive breakdown pathway of plastics in landfill environments.
Augmentation of global marine sedimentary carbon storage in the age of plastic
Researchers quantified plastic carbon inputs to the global marine sedimentary system, finding that approximately 7.8 Mt of plastic carbon is deposited on the seafloor annually, exceeding the natural organic carbon burial rate and representing a previously unaccounted anthropogenic component of the marine carbon cycle.
A mass budget and box model of global plastics cycling, degradation and dispersal in the land-ocean-atmosphere system
Researchers built a global computer model tracking how 8,300 million metric tons of plastic produced since 1950 cycles through land, ocean, and atmosphere as it fragments into microplastics over time. Their modeling shows that even eliminating all new plastic releases from 2025 onward would still leave small microplastics cycling through the environment for millennia, because of the enormous stockpile of plastic waste already accumulated on land.
A predictive model to assess the accumulation of microplastics in the natural environment
Researchers developed a mathematical model to predict how different types of plastics accumulate as microplastics in the environment over a 100-year timeframe. They found that biodegradable plastics like PBS showed near-zero accumulation potential in soil, while conventional polyethylene persisted almost completely. The model offers a standardized way to compare the long-term environmental impact of different plastic materials and could help inform policy decisions about plastic alternatives.
Microplastic-Derived Carbon Emissions: From Granular Carbon to Dissolved Organic Carbon and Carbon Dioxide under Ultraviolet Radiation
Researchers examined carbon emissions from microplastics during aging processes, finding that MPs release not only dissolved organic carbon but also granular carbon particles as they degrade, expanding understanding of the contribution of plastic pollution to oceanic carbon cycling and carbon budgets.
Booming microplastics generation in landfill: An exponential evolution process under temporal pattern
Researchers tracked microplastic generation in a landfill over 30-plus years, finding that MP abundance increased exponentially with the age of deposited waste rather than linearly. The exponential growth pattern suggests that aging landfills are accelerating sources of microplastic release into surrounding soils and leachate.
Hazardous state lifetimes of biodegradable plastics in natural environments
Researchers proposed a framework for assessing how long biodegradable plastics remain in hazardous transition states like microplastics and nanoplastics before fully mineralizing, finding that these intermediate states can persist for extended periods even for supposedly biodegradable materials.
The planet in the clutches of plastic garbage: myths, reality, prospects
This review examines the life cycle of polymeric materials to analyze sources and accumulation of plastic waste, discussing the micro- and nanoscale fragmentation problem and arguing that solutions must include ecologically safe technologies for recycling, combustion, and landfill disposal of polymeric waste.
Evolution and associated environmental pollution risks of micro- and nanoplastics through landfill processes
Researchers reviewed how landfills — the world's primary destination for plastic waste — generate and release micro- and nanoplastics (tiny plastic fragments under 5mm and 1 micron) into surrounding soil, water, and air. The review highlights that landfill mining and remediation activities can actually accelerate the release of these particles, complicating pollution control.
Dynamic formation of microplastics from plastic waste in landfill leachate pressure-bearing zone
Laboratory experiments tracked how microplastics form dynamically from larger plastic waste in landfill conditions over time. The study helps quantify the landfill as a long-term source of secondary microplastic generation and potential leaching into surrounding soils and groundwater.
Disentangling microplastics effects on soil structure, microbial activity and greenhouse gas emissions
Researchers studied how microplastics affect soil structure, microbial activity, and greenhouse gas emissions, finding complex interactions that depend on microplastic type and concentration. The presence of microplastics in soils can alter the biological processes that regulate carbon storage and nutrient cycling.
Property changes of conventional plastic waste mixed with municipal solid waste after 10-year degradation experiments simulating landfill conditions
Researchers excavated plastic waste from four Chinese landfills after 10 years of burial and measured how its properties had changed. The plastics showed significant physical degradation — becoming more brittle, discolored, and cracked — but were not biologically degraded. This means buried plastic waste is a long-term source of secondary microplastics that will continue to fragment over time even when landfilled.
A mass budget and box model of global plastics cycling, degradation and dispersal in the land-ocean-atmosphere system.
Researchers developed a global mass budget and box model tracking plastic cycling across terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric reservoirs from 1950 to 2015, incorporating historical production data, fragmentation, and transport dynamics for macroplastics, large microplastics, and small microplastics. The model estimated that the deep ocean (82 Tg) and shelf sediments (116 Tg) represent major plastic reservoirs, and that even maximum feasible reduction scenarios would result in approximately 4-fold increases in atmospheric and aquatic microplastic exposure by 2050 due to legacy plastics already in circulation.
Are microplastics the ‘technofossils’ of the Anthropocene?
Researchers reviewed dating methods and microplastic data from sedimentary cores globally, establishing a chronological sequence of microplastic polymer types in sediment records and validating it against 39 published dated cores, demonstrating that microplastic composition can serve as a supplementary dating tool for Anthropocene sediments on a centennial scale.
The prevalence of microplastics on the earth and resulting increased imbalances in biogeochemical cycling
This study examines how microplastics are disrupting natural biogeochemical cycles, finding that plastic particles can block elemental transfers between reservoirs and create novel shortcuts in nutrient cycling, altering the flow of matter and energy through Earth's ecosystems.
Implications of plastic pollution on global carbon cycle
This review examines how plastic pollution disrupts the global carbon cycle through the production of fossil-fuel-based plastics, the release of carbon during plastic degradation, and the leaching of chemical additives into the environment. Microplastics and nanoplastics from degrading plastic waste affect carbon cycling in both soil and water ecosystems. The findings highlight that plastic pollution is not just a waste problem but also contributes to climate-related disruptions that ultimately affect human well-being.
Evolution of the proportion of initial Carbon retrieved in Microplastics as a function of post-aging carbonyl index.
This study tracks the evolution of the proportion of initial carbon retrieved in microplastics as a function of the post-aging carbonyl index, providing a quantitative measure of carbon loss during environmental degradation of plastic particles. The findings contribute to understanding how polymer aging affects carbon accounting in microplastic degradation studies.
Degradation of excavated polyethylene and polypropylene waste from landfill
Researchers examined plastic waste (polyethylene and polypropylene) dug up from landfills and found that plastics buried for more than 10 years showed significant chemical and structural changes, including higher oxidation levels and increased crystallinity. Their findings suggest that converting old landfill plastic into pyrolysis oil is a better recycling option than mechanical reprocessing for heavily degraded material.
The fate of missing ocean plastics: Are they just a marine environmental problem?
Researchers estimated a global ocean plastic mass budget to address the paradox of missing ocean plastics, finding that processes like fragmentation, sedimentation, and beaching account for much of the imbalance between plastic inputs and observed floating debris.
Microplastic Mixture Diversity Destabilizes Mineral-Associated Carbon via Constraining the Accumulation of Microbial Necromass
Researchers exposed soil to increasing microplastic diversity (1–12 polymer types) and found that greater polymer diversity reduced microbial necromass carbon by up to 9% and mineral-associated organic carbon by up to 11%, suggesting diverse microplastic mixtures pose greater risks to soil carbon sequestration.
Continuous long-term monitoring of leaching from microplastics into ambient water – A multi-endpoint approach
Researchers conducted continuous long-term monitoring of leaching from 16 types of microplastics into water, finding that most released significant dissolved organic carbon and various chemicals, with leaching patterns varying by polymer type and environmental conditions.
Characterization of excavated plastic waste from an Indian dumpsite: Investigating extent of degradation and resource recovery potential
Researchers characterized excavated plastic waste from an Indian dumpsite to assess the extent of degradation after burial, investigating whether landfill-mined plastics retain sufficient material quality for recycling or energy recovery. The study found varied degradation levels depending on plastic type and burial conditions, with implications for circular economy recovery strategies.