Assessment-of-floating-plastic-debris-in-surface-water-along-the-Seine-River

AssessmentoffloatingplasticdebrisinsurfacewateralongtheSeineRiverJohnnyGasperia,*,RachidDrisa,TiffanyBonina,VincentRocherb,BrunoTassina,*aUniversit�eParis-Est,LEESU,UMRMA102-AgroParisTech,61avenueduG�en�eraldeGaulle,94010Cr�eteilCedex,FrancebSIAAP,DirectionduD�eveloppementetdelaProspective,82avenueKl�eber,92700Colombes,FrancearticleinfoArticlehistory:Received17July2014Receivedinrevisedform26August2014Accepted2September2014AvailableonlineKeywords:FloatingplasticlitterPlasticloadsRiverRiverinelitterabstractThisstudyisintendedtoexaminethequalityandquantityoffloatingplasticdebrisintheRiverSeinethroughuseofanextensiveregionalnetworkoffloatingdebris-retentionbooms;itisoneofthefirstattemptstoprovidereliableinformationonsuchdebrisatalargeregionalscale.Plasticdebrisrepre-sentedbetween0.8%and5.1%oftotaldebriscollectedbyweight.Asignificantproportionconsistedoffoodwrappers/containersandplasticcutlery,probablyoriginatingfromvoluntaryorinvoluntarydumping,urbandischargesandsurfacerunoff.Mostplasticitemsaremadeofpolypropylene,poly-ethyleneand,toalesserextent,polyethyleneterephthalate.Byextrapolation,some27tonsoffloatingplasticdebrisareinterceptedannuallybythisnetwork;correspondingto2.3gperParisianinhabitantperyear.Suchdatacouldservetoprovideafirstevaluationoffloatingplasticinputsconveyedbyrivers.©2014ElsevierLtd.Allrightsreserved.1.IntroductionOverthelast60years,theproductionofplastichasincreasedtremendouslyfrom1.7to288milliontons(PlasticsEurope,2013).Since1970,manyofficialstudiesandreportshavewarnedofthepollutionofmarineenvironmentsbyplasticlitteranditssubse-quentenvironmentalimpacts;suchpublicationshavesuggestedthatriverandland-basedsourcesaresignificantcontributors(Andrady,2011;Barnesetal.,2009;Carpenteretal.,1972;Coleetal.,2011;Derraik,2002;Rechetal.,2014;UNEP,2009).Plasticsmayoriginatefromeithervoluntaryorinvoluntarydumping,urbandischargesandsurfacerunoff.Onceintroducedintorivers,plasticdebrismaysink,bedepositedonriverbanksand/orundergotransfertothemarineenvironment.Plasticdeb