2025-07-25 カリフォルニア大学サンタバーバラ校（UCSB）
＜関連情報＞
- https://news.ucsb.edu/2025/021966/how-plastic-pollution-flows-rivers-oceans-and-how-stop-it
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479725023308?via%3Dihub
4大陸にまたがる8つの多様な河川システムから回収されたマクロプラスチックごみの評価：3年間にわたる地域コミュニティ主導の研究プロジェクトからの知見 Assessing macroplastic debris collected from eight diverse river systems across four continents: Insights from synchronous three-year community-led research efforts
Chase W. Brewster, Molly R. Morse, Robert J. Fournier, Lucas Joseph, Britta R. Baechler, Hannah De Frond, Thaine Herman Assumpcao e, A. Kita Pritasari f, Yunisa Zahrah g, Gulontam Situmorang g, Anssi Mikola h, Nicole Becerra, José Pérez, Inty Grønneberg, Alvaro Quiros, Mirei Endara de Heras, Sandy Watemberg, Clifford Okoth, Martina Sikawa, Moses Okoth, James Scott, Ma del Rosario Norzagaray Román, Fay Crevoshay-Engelmayer, Angela Kemsley, Vien Tran, Sandra Whitehouse, Ho Thi Yen Thu, Stephanie Ritchie, Dominik Haertl, Michael McCarthy, Caroline Mahfood, Douglas J. McCauley
Journal of Environmental Management Available online: 2 July 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126354
Graphical abstract
Highlights
- 66 % of the 3.8M kg of debris collected and analyzed from rivers was macroplastic debris.
- Macroplastic debris compositions (e.g., polymers) varied substantially between rivers.
- Social infrastructure impacted the composition of macroplastic debris in rivers.
- Local and national policies had a discernible impact on macroplastic debris in rivers.
- Access to waste management infrastructure shaped end-of-life fate variations.
Abstract
Plastic pollution is an urgent and growing threat to human and planetary health. Rivers transport large volumes of plastic pollution across and between Earth’s systems, providing opportunistic and strategic focal points for collection and quantitative assessments of plastic debris. A dearth of empirical, in situ studies of riverine plastic debris in scientific literature highlights the need for more research conducted in rivers across diverse contexts to better understand riverine plastic debris and inform upstream solutions. We present and analyze a dataset on macroplastic debris collected over three years (2020–2023) in a nearly continuous and synchronous fashion from eight diverse river systems in eight countries across four continents. We observed the majority (66 %) of the 3.8M kg of debris collected and analyzed in these river systems to be plastic. The compositions of polymers, single-use plastic items, and end-of-life fates of the collected plastic debris varied substantially between river systems. We discuss how differences in socioeconomic, regulatory, and infrastructure conditions across study sites begin to explain some of the observed variation. From these data insights, we share local and global recommendations for actions that could help reduce the flow of plastic debris into rivers in the first place. This research adds to our growing understanding of plastic pollution locally in these specific river systems as well as globally at a moment when the international community is actively working towards a global policy instrument to end plastic pollution.
