Creating a waste free tomorrow: Assessing waste literacy and behaviour change in grade 5 students

There is a growing necessity to implement awareness campaigns to inform behaviour change toward more sustainable consumption of plastic products, and a need to train science students in outreach communication and teaching. We’ve developed a school program to improve scientific and waste literacy among elementary students. Graduate and Undergraduate student volunteers co-created lesson plans exploring our relationship with plastics: 1. Plastic Cycle, 2. Watersheds and their Relationship to Litter, 3. Impacts of Plastic on Ecosystems, and 4. Solutions to Plastic Pollution. The lessons include direct connections to research by members of our team, all early-career scientists with a focus on understanding the sources, fate, effects, and mitigation of plastic pollution. Using a peer-to-peer framework, lessons are delivered by university student instructors, offering learning and mentoring opportunities across many levels of education. To reduce barriers of accessibility, classroom visits are offered at no charge. To assess the effectiveness of these lesson plans, we are studying how the lessons impact knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behaviours toward aquatic litter and plastic pollution in participating children. For this study, we administered short paper questionnaires pre-and post-participation in the school program from October 2021 to May 2023. The questionnaire was administered before the first class and then several weeks later. Results will be shared at this conference which can inform strategies to engage children in the topic of plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems. We\u27ll also share our experience creating this program with the post-secondary students. This research was approved by our institutional research ethics board

Prevalence of microplastics and anthropogenic debris within a deep-sea food web

Microplastic particles (\u3c5 mm) are ubiquitous throughout global marine ecosystems, including the deep sea. Ingestion of microplastics and other anthropogenic microparticles is reported in diverse marine taxa across trophic levels. Trophic transfer, or the movement of microplastics across trophic levels, is reported in laboratory studies but not yet widely measured in marine food webs. The Monterey Bay submarine canyon ecosystem contains a well-studied, known deep-sea food web in which to examine the trophic fate of microplastics. We measured microplastic abundance across 17 genera spanning approximately 5 trophic levels and a diversity of feeding behaviors. Samples were collected using remotely operated vehicles and oblique midwater trawls, and gut contents of all individuals examined (n = 157) were analyzed for microplastic abundance and other anthropogenic particles greater than 100 μm using stereo microscopy. Microparticles were analyzed with Raman spectroscopy to confirm material type. Anthropogenic particles were found in all genera examined, across crustacean, fish, mollusk, and gelatinous organisms, in amounts ranging from 0 to 24 particles per individual. There was no significant relationship between microplastic amount and fish trophic level, suggesting that the trophic transfer of microparticles is not occurring. Body size was positively correlated with microplastic abundance across all taxa. The fish genus Scomber sp. drove this relationship, suggesting higher microparticle abundance in mobile individuals with broad horizontal distributions. Future work should examine physiological pathways for microplastic transport within organisms (e.g. excretion, accumulation on gills, internal translocation of particles) and between organisms within shared habitats to more fully understand the fate of microplastics within aquatic food webs

Polystyrene plastic: a source and sink for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the marine environment

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on virgin polystyrene (PS) and PS marine debris led us to examine PS as a source and sink for PAHs in the marine environment. At two locations in San Diego Bay, we measured sorption of PAHs to PS pellets, sampling at 0, 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. We detected 25 PAHs using a new analytical method with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Several congeners were detected on samples before deployment. After deployment, some concentrations decreased (1,3-dimethylnaphthalene and 2,6-methylnaphthalene) while most increased (2-methylanthracene and all parent PAHs (PPAHs) except fluorene and fluoranthene), suggesting PS debris is a source and sink for PAHs. When comparing sorbed concentrations of PPAHs on PS to the five most common polymers (polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and polypropylene (PP)), PS sorbed greater concentrations than PP, PET and PVC, similar to HDPE and LDPE. Most strikingly, at 0 months, PPAHs on PS ranged from 8-200 times greater than on PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, and PP. The combination of greater PAHs in virgin pellets and large sorption suggests that PS may pose a greater risk of exposure to PAHs upon ingestion

Polystyrene plastic: a source and sink for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the marine environment

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on virgin polystyrene (PS) and PS marine debris led us to examine PS as a source and sink for PAHs in the marine environment. At two locations in San Diego Bay, we measured sorption of PAHs to PS pellets, sampling at 0, 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. We detected 25 PAHs using a new analytical method with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Several congeners were detected on samples before deployment. After deployment, some concentrations decreased (1,3-dimethylnaphthalene and 2,6-methylnaphthalene) while most increased (2-methylanthracene and all parent PAHs (PPAHs) except fluorene and fluoranthene), suggesting PS debris is a source and sink for PAHs. When comparing sorbed concentrations of PPAHs on PS to the five most common polymers (polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and polypropylene (PP)), PS sorbed greater concentrations than PP, PET and PVC, similar to HDPE and LDPE. Most strikingly, at 0 months, PPAHs on PS ranged from 8-200 times greater than on PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, and PP. The combination of greater PAHs in virgin pellets and large sorption suggests that PS may pose a greater risk of exposure to PAHs upon ingestion

From Pollution To Solution: a global assessment of marine litter and plastic pollution

Outcome from working on the United Nations Environment Programme Advisory Group with the aim to address the UN Environment Assembly’s adopted resolution (UN/EA.4/RES.6) on Marine Plastic Litter and Microplastics by recommending indicators to harmonise monitoring and assessment and informing on policies and action environmentally sound technology innovations

Plastic Particles in Silverside (Stolephorusheterolobus) Collected at Paotere Fish Market, Makassar

Plastics represent the latest contaminant in the marine environment. Although plastics without doubt represent a uniquely valuable material particularly in construction, packaging and fishing gear applications. Current research on plastic debris in digestive tract content of pelagic fish is part of ongoing collaboration between University of Hasanuddin and University of California at Davis. Locally caught and consumed Silverside (Stolephorusheterolobus) or widely known as anchovies has been the subject on this studies. Freshly landed fish were collected from Paotere fish market, which is also the biggest fish wholesale location at Makassar City, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. At laboratory fish digestive tracts were removed and digested in 10% KOH at 60o C overnight, followed with plastic particles observation using binocular microscope. Four out of 10 fish investigated were found to contained plastic particles in their digestive tract. This is the first work on plastic debris in fish gut ever conducted in the region, which is in accordance to previous works on plastics debris elsewhere and will be further discussed for their possible effects, both on food safety and human toxicology

Strategies for reducing ocean plastic debris should be diverse and guided by science

Studies suggest that trillions of microplastic particles are floating on the surface of the global oceans and that the total amount of plastic waste entering the ocean will increase by an order of magnitude by 2025. As such, this ever-increasing problem demands immediate mitigation and reduction. Diverse solutions have been proposed, ranging from source reduction to ocean-based cleanup. These solutions are most effective when guided by scientific evidence. A study published in  Environmental Research Letters (Sherman and van Sebille 2016 Environ. Res. Lett. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/1/014006 11 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/1/014006 ) took a closer look at the potential effectiveness of ocean-based cleanup. They conclude that it will be most cost-effective and ecologically beneficial if clean-up efforts focus on the flux of microplastics from the coasts rather than in the center of the oceans where plastic accumulates in so called ‘garbage patches’. If followed, this example may become one of a series of examples where science has informed a solution to the complex problem of plastic pollution