Persistence of Plastic Litter in the Oceans
Open accessAbstract
The increasing global production and use of plastics has led to an accumulation of enormous amounts of plastic litter in the world’s oceans. Characteristics such as low density, good mechanical properties and low cost allow for successful use of plastics in industries and everyday life but the high durability leads to persistence of the synthetic polymers in the marine environment where they cause harm to a great variety of organisms. In the diverse marine habitats, including beaches, the sea surface, the water column, and the seafloor, plastics are exposed to different environmental conditions that either accelerate or decelerate the physical, chemical and biological degradation of plastics. Degradation of plastics occurs primarily through solar UV-radiation induced photo oxidation reactions and is, thus, most intensive in photic environments such as the sea surface and on beaches. The rate of degradation is temperature-dependent resulting in considerable deceleration of the processes in seawater, which is a good heat sink. Below the photic zone in the water column, plastics degrade very slowly resulting in high persistence of plastic litter especially at the seafloor. Biological decomposition of plastics by microorganisms is negligible in the marine environment because the kinetics of biodegradation at sea is particularly slow and oxygen supply for these processes limited. Degradation of larger plastic items leads to the formation of abundant small microplastics. The transport of small particles to the seafloor and their deposition in the benthic environment is facilitated by the colonization of the material by fouling organisms, which increase the density of the particles and force them to sink.
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The rates of degradation of plastics in different environments strongly depend on the local conditions to which they are exposed.
“The rates of degradation of plastics in different environments will strongly depend on the local conditions to which they are exposed 36 .”
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- Authors
- Andrady, A. L.
- Affiliations
- North Carolina State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Andrady, Anthony L.
- ORCID
- Andrady, Anthony L.
- Venue
- Marine Anthropogenic Litter
- Publisher
- Springer International Publishing
- Published
- 2015
- Pages
- 57-72
- OpenAlex
- W1911539067
- Cited by
- 667
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 76 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 77 · 2022: 91 · 2021: 92 · 2020: 77 · 2019: 53 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 14
- FWCI
- 33.74
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Springer eBooks (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Polymers and Plastics › Polymer Science and PVC
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Ocean Engineering › Marine and Offshore Engineering Studies
- Keywords
- plastic debris, marine plastic pollution, plastic degradation, photodegradation, ultraviolet radiation, temperature-dependent degradation, marine biodegradation, microplastics, fouling organisms, marine litter
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