Microplastics in freshwater systems

Microplastics are ubiquitous in the environment originating from a number of sources. These include primary microplastics from engineered pellets in personal care products to the fragmentation of plastics from packaging material or single use plastics. Extensive research has been done on microplastics in marine environments but very little research has been done in freshwater systems which in most cases are a source for marine microplastics. Therefore there is a need to characterise microplastics in freshwater systems taking sources, type and character into account together with transportation mechanisms in terms of hydrological regime and discharge from freshwater sources to the ocean.