Review
New plastic formations in the Anthropocene

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142216Get rights and content

Highlights

  • New plastic-associated contaminants have been recently reported in literature.

  • The fate and effects depend on the characteristics of each new contaminant.

  • Plastic pollution monitoring guidelines must include the new terminology.

  • Further research is needed regarding the suspected impacts of these contaminants.

Abstract

Plastic pollution is one of the major challenges in the Anthropocene. Upon reaching the marine environment, plastic debris is subject to anthropogenic and environmental conditions that result in novel items that vary in composition, physical and chemical characteristics. Here, we reviewed and discussed the potential fate and threat to the environment of four recently described plastic formations: Plastiglomerates, pyroplastics, plasticrusts, and anthropoquinas. The threats identified were mostly related to the release of toxic chemicals and plastic ingestion. Transportation of alien invasive species or microbial pathogens and fragmentation of larger plastics into microplastics (<5 mm), potentially reaching marine trophic webs, are suspected as potential impacts based on the characteristics of these plastic formations. Some plastic forms may persist in the environment and voyage across the ocean, while others are denser and less likely to enter the plastic cycle or interact with biota. In the latter case, plastics are expected to become buried in the sediment and incorporate into the geological record. It is necessary to establish sampling protocols or standards that are specific to each plastic formation and start reporting the occurrence of these new plastic categories as such to avoid underestimating plastic pollution in marine environments. It is suggested that monitoring plans include these categories and identify potential sources. Further research must focus on investigating whether the suspected impacts are a matter of concern. In this sense, we have suggested research questions to address the knowledge gaps and have a better understanding of the impacts and distribution of the new plastic forms.

Introduction

Since first manufactured in the beginnings of the XX century, plastic has become a material of widespread use due to its versatility, resistance, low-cost production, and lightweight (Verla et al., 2019). Nonetheless, the poor management on the post-consumer stage has made plastic a major environmental concern as a pollutant with a ubiquitous presence on the environment (Corcoran et al., 2018), found even in remote areas such as protected natural reserves, agroecosystems, glaciers, and arctic deep-sea sediments (Ambrosini et al., 2019; Bergmann et al., 2017; Dioses-Salinas et al., 2020). The long persistence and ubiquitous presence of plastic in environmental sediment samples have made researchers consider it as an indicator of the Anthropocene, which is a proposed epoch started in 1950 characterized by the alteration of natural processes by human activity and that has anthropogenic materials found in terrestrial and aquatic sediments as one of its indicative signatures (Waters et al., 2016). Effects on the biota and the environmental matrix (e.g. sediment, soil, water) quality and properties due to plastic debris pollution have been reported by several authors, especially on the marine environment (Qi et al., 2020; Verla et al., 2019).

For many years, the inputs of plastics from land into the ocean (Jambeck et al., 2015), their transportation in surface waters and cross convergence zones (Law et al., 2010) and vertical flux due to biofouling and subsequent increase in density (Hale et al., 2020) have been researched. Windsor et al. (2019) described the plastic fluxes among terrestrial, freshwater, cryospheric, atmospheric, and marine compartments. These models lack biotic elements, despite being known that plastic debris of various sizes is ingested by biota and humans (Setälä et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2020). Recently, the concept of cycling was introduced to plastic pollution (Lecher, 2018). Like the biogeochemical cycles, the plastic cycle proposed by Bank and Hansson (2019) is defined as “the continuous and complex movement of plastic materials between different abiotic and biotic ecosystem compartments, including humans”.

Recently, some authors have reported the presence of new plastic formations that may be the result of the interaction of plastic debris with other debris, anthropogenic processes, and elements of the environment (e.g. wood, waste burning, waves, sand, sediments, and organic materials) (Corcoran et al., 2014; Fernandino et al., 2020; Gestoso et al., 2019; Turner et al., 2019). Some of these new plastic forms or composites may no longer belong to one of the specific classifications defined by Hartmann et al. (2019). The new plastic formations have been reported mainly in coastal areas, in some cases from several countries, which is indicative of their global widespread distribution. They exhibit different physicochemical characteristics than their original plastic material, for example in terms of resistance to chemical, weathering, and mechanical abrasion or density (Corcoran et al., 2014). These changes may result in different effects and fate on the environment that need to be addressed. In addition, considerations on decontamination plans of these new pollutants may have to be taken, as the mixture of synthetic and organic components make the separation impractical and potentially impossible without affecting the ecosystem (Corcoran et al., 2014).

Due to their different characteristics, these new plastic formations cannot be considered to have the same behavior and impact than common plastic debris. Therefore, they emerge as a new challenge for the plastic pollution crisis. Moreover, there is a need for further studies and information analysis of the formation, transport mechanism, occurrence, and environmental effect of these new plastic forms to understand its ecological significance (Fernandino et al., 2020; Gestoso et al., 2019). Here, we focused on the current understanding of the new plastic formations reported in the literature. First, we summarized the definitions of the new plastic formations, namely plastiglomerate, pyroplastic, plasticrust and anthropoquina, and the available reports. Then, we analyzed and discussed the potential fate and impacts on the environment of each plastic formation based on their physical-chemical characteristics. We aim to present the new types of plastic pollution as a novel line of research in anthropogenic pollution and to provide guidance across the various knowledge gaps regarding their environmental impact.

Section snippets

Methods

A literature search was conducted in order to retrieve articles investigating new forms of marine plastic pollution. The keywords “plastiglomerate”, “pyroplastic”, “plasticrust” or “anthropoquina” were used to retrieve articles reporting these plastic-associated contaminants from the Scopus (https://www.scopus.com/), ScienceDirect (https://www.sciencedirect.com/), and Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/) databases. The references of the retrieved articles were also checked. These four

Plastiglomerates

In 2014, plastiglomerates were first described as an anthropogenic multi-composite matrix consisting of melted plastic, beach sediment or sand, basaltic lava debris and pieces of organic material (Corcoran et al., 2014) (Fig. 1a). These anthropogenic formations were reported for the first time in Kamilo Beach, Hawaii, and have been later observed in other parts of the world, including Indonesia, USA, Portugal, and Canada (Corcoran et al., 2018; Corcoran and Jazvac, 2020), although further

Pyroplastic

Pyroplastics, a subtype of clastic plastiglomerates, was recently described by Turner et al. (2019) as “an amorphous matrix that appears to be formed by the burning or melting of plastic and that is usually characterized by a single, neutral color (black-charcoal-grey, offwhite or brown), with occasional hues of green, blue, pink or yellow, and is accompanied by cracks and fractures, pits and cavities” (Fig. 1b). Unlike clastic plastiglomerates described previously (Corcoran et al., 2014),

Plasticrusts

The term plasticrust was first coined by Gestoso et al. (2019) and describes plastic pieces encrusted in the texture of intertidal rocks that may persist over time (Fig. 1c). The formation of plasticrusts is suggested to be caused by the coastal wave-induced crash of larger plastic items against rock outcrops. Factors inducing the spread of plasticrusts are levels of plastic pollution nearshore, tidal amplitude, and wave exposure (Ehlers and Ellrich, 2020). According to Corcoran and Jazvac

Anthropoquinas

More recently, the term anthropoquinas was coined by Fernandino et al. (2020) describing sedimentary rocks that contain objects of anthropogenic source, including plastic, and other organic material (Fig. 1d). Anthropogenic materials cemented in sedimentary beach rocks were reported in previous studies (Arrieta et al., 2011; Irabien et al., 2015), composed mainly of brick fragments, glass, plastic, and slags. These anthropogenic artifacts, namely technofossils (Zalasiewicz et al., 2014), are

Conclusions and future perspectives

Plastic pollution is widespread worldwide. The interactions of plastic wastes with environmental and anthropogenic conditions give rise to new forms of pollution (Fig. 3). Here, a literature review was conducted, and the possible environmental impacts were identified with respect to four newly defined plastic formations in the Anthropocene: Plastiglomerates, pyroplastics, plasticrusts, and anthropoquinas. The possible impacts vary due to their characteristics and their interaction with the

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the five peer-reviewers for their comments and suggestions which added enormously to the revised paper. This research was funded by Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola.

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