Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Pollution

Predicting the fate of plastic in the environment

A model that predicts the masses of microplastics in river networks is a step forward in our goal of tackling global plastic pollution.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Microplastic behaviour.

Martin Harvey/ Photodisc/ Getty

References

  1. Draft resolution: End Plastic Pollution: Towards an International Legally Binding Instrument (UNEP, 2022); https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/38522/k2200647_-_unep-ea-5-l-23-rev-1_-_advance.pdf

  2. MacLeod, M. et al. Nat. Comput. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-023-00445-y (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Mennekes, D. & Nowack, B. Nat. Water https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00090-9 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. MacLeod, M. et al. Science 373, 6550 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Commission regulation (EU) …/… of XXX amending Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as regards synthetic polymer microparticles. EU (22 September 2022); https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/comitology-register/screen/documents/083921/1/consult?lang=en

  6. Allen, S. et al. Nat. Commun. 12, 7242 (2021).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Harrison, S. et al. Advancing our understanding of plastic fragmentation in the environment through a mechanistic model of plastic degradation and fragmentation. In Poster at SETAC Europe 32nd Annual Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark (Zenodo, 2022).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sam Harrison.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Harrison, S. Predicting the fate of plastic in the environment. Nat Water 1, 490–491 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00097-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00097-2

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing AI and Robotics

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics newsletter — what matters in AI and robotics research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: AI and Robotics