Are We Speaking the Same Language? Recommendations for a Definition and Categorization Framework for Plastic Debris.

By N. Hartmann, Thorsten Hüffer, Richard C. Thompson, M. Hassellöv, A. Verschoor, A. Daugaard, S. Rist, Therese Karlsson, Nicole Brennholt, M. Cole and 5 more. Environmental Science and Technology, 2019

2,163 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The accumulation of plastic litter in natural environments is a global issue. Concerns over potential negative impacts on the economy, wildlife, and human health provide strong incentives for improving the sustainable use of plastics. Despite the many voices raised on the issue, we lack a consensus on how to define and categorize plastic debris. This is evident for microplastics, where inconsistent size classes are used and where the materials to be included are under debate. While this is inherent in an emerging research field, an ambiguous terminology results in confusion and miscommunication that may compromise progress in research and mitigation measures. Therefore, we need to be explicit on what exactly we consider plastic debris. Thus, we critically discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a unified terminology, propose a definition and categorization framework, and highlight areas of uncertainty. Going beyond size classes, our framework includes physicochemical properties (polymer composition, solid state, solubility) as defining criteria and size, shape, color, and origin as classifiers for categorization. Acknowledging the rapid evolution of our knowledge on plastic pollution, our framework will promote consensus building within the scientific and regulatory community based on a solid scientific foundation.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d42f4deb2bf5472c2f4dc21820005628523b9651

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Citations in the corpus

A Global Perspective on Microplastics (2020, background): “Hartmann et al. (2019) included these as “plastics,” although others have excluded them due to their cellulose‐derived origin.”
Twenty years of microplastic pollution research—what have we learned? (2024, background): “Subcategories of microplastic linked to their sources have since been described, including the terms primary and secondary microplastics, but this terminology has not been used consistently ( 10 ).”
Atmospheric microplastic deposition in an urban environment and an evaluation of transport (2019, background): “Microplastics define plastic particles ≤5 mm in size, although there are efforts to redefine them as ≤1 mm in size, as recommended by (Hartmann et al., 2019), and include primary microplastics which have been purposefully manufactured.”
Microplastic fiber and drought effects on plants and soil are only slightly modified by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (2020, background): “They are either produced already as micro-sized particles ( < 5 mm), the socalled primary microplastics, or reach this size through fragmenting from larger pieces, the secondary microplastics (Hartmann et al., 2019).”
Plasticenta: First evidence of microplastics in human placenta. (2021, background): “Microplastics (MPs) are defined as particles less than 5 mm in size (Hartmann et al., 2019).”
Contributions of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in microplastic pollution research: A review (2020, background): “Depending on size, plastics have been categorized as nanoplastics (1 to 1000 nm), MPs (1 to 1000 mm), mesoplastics (1 to 10mm) and macroplastics (1 cm and larger) (Hartmann et al., 2019).”