Journal
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
Volume 135, Issue -, Pages 187-194Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.07.015
Keywords
Plastic pollution; Weathering; Fate; FTIR; Microplastics; In situ degradation
Funding
- Swedish Environmental Research Council Formas [2014-1146]
- Interreg project Clean Coastline
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Polyethylene is a commonly used polymer in plastic products and is often found as marine litter. Nevertheless there is limited knowledge about what happens to the material when it ends up in the sea. Polyethylene films were therefore thermally oxidised to four different levels of degradation. The films were then placed in stainless steel cages in the sea off the Swedish west coast for 12 summer weeks. Subsamples were analysed with respect to biofouling, degradation and buoyancy. All levels showed a continued oxidation in the field. The pre-degraded films started fragmenting and the non-degraded films showed a decrease in tensile strain. All levels showed increased biofouling with higher presence of filamentous algae and bryozoans on pre-degraded materials. The density (kg.m(-3)) of the films was seen to increase slightly, and the apparent density for the pre-degraded films (density of the films with biofilm) showed a strong increase, which resulted in sinking.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available