The DOI matches its Crossref record; 119 of the 119 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Reducing environmental plastic pollution by designing polymer materials for managed end-of-life
Open accessAbstract
Plastics are a ubiquitous class of synthetic polymer materials used in virtually all commercial and industrial sectors. The majority of global plastics consists of polymers with carbon–carbon backbones, whose environmental persistence and low cost have resulted in a massive reservoir of plastic waste that resides in landfills and the environment. Although plastic debris contaminating the ocean has been documented for decades, details about plastic debris composition, distribution, impact and ultimate fate in the environment remain elusive. In this Review, we present an overview of environmental plastic contamination and discuss the origin (feedstock) and degradation behaviour of plastics to help inform material design principles addressing end-of-life management. We argue that designing materials to be ‘marine biodegradable’ or universally biodegradable is not, in itself, a solution to plastic pollution. Instead, material and product design principles must include a feasible plan for recovery and treatment based upon existing (or, possibly, simultaneously developed) systems. Plastic debris continues to contaminate the environment, negatively impacting wildlife and ecosystems. This Review argues that polymer selection and product design must incorporate strategies for end-of-life management and strive to eliminate, or at least minimize, environmental persistence of plastic materials.
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Citations
Cites
Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made
Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.1700782 · Cited by 18,606
Self-citationPlastic waste inputs from land into the ocean
Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan, R., & Law, K. L. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1260352 · Cited by 13,163
Self-citationMicroplastics in the marine environment
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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
(2005) · Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation · doi:10.2175/193864705783867675 · Cited by 6,678
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Cited by
Yadav, G., Singh, A., Dutta, A., Uekert, T., DesVeaux, J. S., Nicholson, S. R., Tan, E. C. D., Mukarakate, C., Schaidle, J. A., Wrasman, C. J., et al. (2023) · Energy & Environmental Science · doi:10.1039/d3ee00749a · Cited by 223
Spiro-salen catalysts enable the chemical synthesis of stereoregular polyhydroxyalkanoates
Huang, H.-Y., Xiong, W., Huang, Y.-T., Li, K., Cai, Z., & Zhu, J.-B. (2023) · Nature Catalysis · doi:10.1038/s41929-023-01001-7 · Cited by 105
Jansen, M. A. K., Andrady, A. L., Bornman, J. F., Aucamp, P. J., Bais, A. F., Banaszak, A. T., Barnes, P. W., Bernhard, G. H., Bruckman, L. S., Busquets, R., et al. (2024) · Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences · doi:10.1007/s43630-024-00552-3 · Cited by 83
Untangling the chemical complexity of plastics to improve life cycle outcomes
Law, K. L., Sobkowicz, M. J., Shaver, M. P., & Hahn, M. E. (2024) · Nature Reviews Materials · doi:10.1038/s41578-024-00705-x · Cited by 78
Self-citationQuinn, E. C., Westlie, A. H., Sangroniz, A., Caputo, M. R., Xu, S., Zhang, Z., Urgun-Demirtas, M., Müller, A. J., & Chen, E. Y.-X. (2023) · Journal of the American Chemical Society · doi:10.1021/jacs.2c12897 · Cited by 70
Metadata
- Authors
- Law, K. L., & Narayan, R.
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Materials
- Published
- 2021-10-11
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 104-116
- ISSN
- 2058-8437 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3207552673
- Cited by
- 478
- References
- 119
- FWCI
- 5.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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