Car tyres drive 42% of EU microplastics sea pollution

For Europe, car tyres are the primary source of microplastics that reach the sea through the sewers: they cause 42% of the total pollution. Plastics from laundry are a strong second. This was revealed by a Wageningen model study of the Water Systems and Global Change (Carolien Kroeze) and Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality (Bart Koelmans) groups. Kroeze’s group works on the modelling of surface water pollution. One of their models was used by master’s student Max Siegfried to map the pollution of the European seas with microplastics from sewage water. The project focused on the route covered by the plastics, through the sewers and rivers into the sea (News Item WUR, 12 January 2018).
Click here for the news item.
Click here for an article about the research published in Water Research (1.96 MB).
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