Modeling the Flows of Plastics and Microplastics into the environment

Evaluating the magnitudes of flows and concentrations of anthropogenic pollutants in the environment forms the basis of any environmental risk assessment. In the past years microplastics have received growing attention from the scientific community and the public, being particulate pollutants that could potentially pose a threat to human health and the environment. Current concentration measurements are more qualitative than quantitative, and since the effects of the particles on organisms are concentration dependent, it is very important to get information on environmental exposure concentrations.

The main goal of this project is to develop a material flow model that will describe the flows of different microplastics to the environment, using data on plastic production and use as main input and considering the life-cycle of products. The different plastics of interest for this project are the ones that are most used: PE (polyethylene), PP (polypropylene), PS (polystyrene) and PET (polyethylene terephtalate). In a first step a material flow model for the various plastics will be developed and the microplastics release to the environment will be quantified in a second step. The model will then be regionalized and environmental concentrations will be calculated for the Swiss and European freshwater systems. The model will be calibrated and refined using available measurements of microplastics in freshwaters.

 

Publications

Kawecki, D.; Scheeder, P. R. W.; Nowack, B. (2018) Probabilistic Material Flow Analysis of Seven Commodity Plastics in Europe. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52: 9874-9888. pdf

Kawecki, D.; Nowack, B. (2019) Polymer-specific modelling of the environmental emissions of seven commodity plastics as macro- and microplastics. Environ. Sci. Technol. 53: 9664−9676. pdf

Sieber, R.; Kawecki, D.; Nowack, B. (2020) Dynamic Probabilistic Material Flow Analysis of Microplastic Release from Tires into the Environment. Environ. Pollut. 258: 113573. pdf

Kawecki, D.; Nowack, B. (2020) A proxy-based approach to predict spatially resolved emissions of macro- and microplastic to the environment. Science of the Total Environment 748: 141137. pdf

Kawecki, D.; Goldberg, L.; Nowack, B. (2020) Material flow analysis of plastic in organic waste in Switzerland. Soil Use and Management in press.

Contact

Empa
Technology & Society Laboratory
Lerchenfeldstrasse 5
CH-9014 St. Gallen
Tel.: +41 58 765 76 92

nowack@empa.ch