Author(s): Stephanie Oswald; Esmee Oldenhof; Ad Ragas; Margriet Schoor And Frank Collas
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Plastic transport River pollution Macroplastic Mesoplastic Modelling
Abstract: Plastic pollution in aquatic environments poses significant environmental threats globally. Despite growing monitoring efforts, the lack of standardized methods and diverse metrics for quantifying plastic pollution hampers direct comparisons across studies and limits comprehensive assessments. This study aims to address these challenges by developing a method for quantifying yearly plastic transport rates, incorporating various metrics, and applying this methodology to rivers in the Netherlands. The yearly plastic transport in the Rhine showed the highest flux at the Germany-Netherlands border in Lobith (3.24 × 108 items/year), decreasing downstream to 2.10 × 108 items/year at Tiel. Similarly, plastic mass showed a net loss from upstream to downstream, with mean weights of 1.65 × 107 grams/year at Lobith and 1.02 × 107 grams/year at Tiel.
Year: 2025