Plastic pollution is ubiquitous throughout the environment, and its potentially hazardous effects have become of great concern in past years. More than 80% of the plastics enter the marine environment from land-based sources via rivers. To prevent plastic litter from reaching the marine environment, where it spreads rapidly and it is difficult to extract a posteriori, more than thirty plastic clean-up technologies are commercially available to date to remove plastic from inland waters. The focus of these technologies is to collect plastic most efficiently, but less attention is given to their potential bycatch, such as living organisms and organic debris. The organisms and organic debris accidentally and unintentionally bycaught often
could provide essential functions in the rivers and estuaries’ ecosystems where clean-up technologies are deployed. River estuaries are regarded as regions of high biodiversity, providing feeding grounds, shelter, and nurseries for some threatened and commercially important species. To date, an objective tool to quantify and assess the bycatch of plastic clean-up technologies is lacking.
This study aims to resolve this knowledge gap by creating, with the aid of a probabilistic model, a decision framework for the plastic clean-up technologies. Such a decision framework will guide policymakers and river managers to wisely select the best-suited technology to remove plastics from rivers, while mitigating potential collateral damage.
","AbstractOtherLang":"Plasticverontreiniging is alomtegenwoordig in het aquatische milieu en de potentieel negatieve gevolgen van plastic staan hoog op de politieke agenda. Meer dan 80% van het plastic komt het mariene milieu binnen vanaf het land via rivieren. Om te voorkomen dat plastic in het mariene milieu terechtkomt, waar het zich snel verspreidt en achteraf moeilijk te verwijderen is, zijn er momenteel reeds meer dan dertig opruimingstechnologieën ter beschikking. Bij deze technologieën ligt de nadruk op het zo efficiënt mogelijk verwijderen van plastic, en er wordt slechts beperkt rekening gehouden met de mogelijke bijvangsten (bijv. levende organismen en organisch afval). Deze toevallige en onbedoelde bijvangst vervult vaak essentiële functies in rivierecosystemen waar de opruimingstechnologieën worden toegepast. Riviermondingen worden beschouwd als gebieden met een grote biodiversiteit, die voedselgronden, schuilplaatsen en kraamkamers bieden voor een aantal bedreigde en commercieel belangrijke soorten. Tot op heden ontbreekt het aan een objectief instrument om de bijvangst van plastic opruimingstechnologieën te kwantificeren. Deze studie heeft tot doel deze kennislacune op te vullen door met behulp van een probabilistisch model een beslissingskader te creëren voor de plastic opruimingstechnologieën. Een dergelijk beslissingskader zal rivierbeheerders ondersteunen bij hun keuze van een geschikte technologie om plastics te verwijderen en tegelijk de ecologische nevenschade te beperken.
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