Exponent : Assessing the Breakdown of Plastics in the Environment
May 02, 2024 at 05:42 pm EDT
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Exponent's Christopher C. White and 42 other scientists on the United Nation's Environmental Effects Assessment Panel have co-authored a paper in Global Change Biology. Their article explores the link between climate change and plastic waste; in particular, the team "assessed effects of UV radiation and interacting climate change factors on plastics, focusing on the durability of products as well as the production and dispersal of micro- and nano-plastic pollutants in the environment."
The paper notes a 2022 estimate of 400 million metric tonnes of plastics produced globally every year - a significant amount of which can be considered "unmanaged and ubiquitous" - that could be contaminating the natural environment. The article underlines the need for better understanding of the potential environmental fate of plastic debris and contaminants and their degradation into micro- and nanoplastics.
The authors cite the importance of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer to address and prevent rising rates of UV-B-driven photodegradation and fragmentation of plastics, explaining that "the complex, interactive effects of UV radiation and climate change, together with changes in feedstocks, will make plastic weathering less predictable in the future."
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Exponent, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, is a science and engineering consulting firm. The Company serves clients in chemicals, construction, consumer products, energy, food, beverage and nutrition, government, life sciences, insurance, manufacturing, technology, industrial equipment, transportation, and other sectors. It provides engineering and scientific consulting services to clients around the world. Its service offerings are provided on a project- by-project basis. The Company has two segments: Engineering and Other Scientific, and Environmental and Health. The Engineering and Other Scientific segment is a service group providing technical consulting in different practices, primarily in engineering. The Environmental and Health segment provides services in the area of environmental, epidemiology and health risk analysis. This segment provides a range of consulting services relating to environmental hazards and risks and the impact on both human health and the environment.