A mass budget and box model of global plastics cycling, degradation and dispersal in the land-ocean-atmosphere system

Sonke, Jeroen E.; Koenig, Alkuin M.; Yakovenko, Nadiia; Hagelskjær, Oskar; Margenat, Henar; Hansson, Sophia V.; De Vleeschouwer, Francois; Magand, Olivier; Le Roux, Gael; Thomas, Jennie L.

doi:10.1186/s43591-022-00048-w

Microplastics and Nanoplastics

Table 4 Comparison of observed and modeled plastics mass (M, in Tg) and fluxes (F, in Tg y^− 1) for the year 2015

From: A mass budget and box model of global plastics cycling, degradation and dispersal in the land-ocean-atmosphere system

Reservoir mass (M) or flux (F)	Abbreviation	Observed	Uncertainty (1σ)	Box model
M P produced	P_prod	8300	10%^a	8300
M P in-use	P_use	2600	10%^a	3320
M P discarded	P_disc	4214	22%	2382
M LMP discarded	LMP_disc	686	22%	1222
M SMP discarded	SMP_disc			540^b
M P Surface Ocean	P_surf-oce	0.23	75%^a	0.021
M LMP Surface Ocean	LMP_surf-oce	0.031	75%^a	0.038
M SMP Surface Ocean	SMP_surf-oce	0.0028	196%	0.009
M LMP Deep Ocean	LMP_deep-oce	82	57%	77
M SMP Deep Ocean	SMP_deep-oce	82	57%	33
M SMP atmosphere	SMP_atm	0.03	500%	0.011
M SMP remote terrestrial	SMP_terr	28	37%	41
M P beach	P_beach	1.3	500%^a	1.1
M LMP beach	LMP_beach	0.53	100%	2.9
M P shelf sediment	P_shelf-sed	51	500%^a	43
M LMP shelf sediment	LMP_shelf-sed	65	100%	9.5
M SMP shelf sediment	SMP_shelf-sed			0.3^b
M LMP deep ocean sediment	LMP_deep-sed	1.0	500%^a	1.2
M SMP deep ocean sediment	SMP_deep-sed	1.0	500%^a	0.1
M P Incinerated	P_incin	800	20%^a	626
M P Recycled	P_recyc	750	20%^a	554
F P_use to LMP_disc		42	22%	41
F P_use to P_disc		118	22%	130
F P_use to P_incin		74	20%^a	63
F P_use to P_recyc		56	20%^a	57
F P_disc to LMP_disc				71^b
F LMP_disc to SMP_disc				36^b
F P river				2.4^b
F LMP river				7.5^b
F SMP river (from SMP_disc)				3.3^b
F SMP river (from P_terr)				0.3^b
F river total		0.006-13		13
F Surface Ocean P to LMP				0.001^b
F Surface Ocean LMP to SMP				0.001^b
F Deep Ocean LMP to SMP				2.3^b
F SMP Ocean to atmosphere		8.6	500%^a	27
F SMP Atmosphere to ocean		7.6	500%^a	23
F P beaching				0.1^b
F LMP beaching				0.2^b
F beach P to LMP				0.03^b
F LMP surface to deep ocean				6.8^b
F SMP surface to deep ocean				0.3^b
F P surface to shelf sediments				2.3^b
F LMP surface to shelf sediments				0.6^b
F SMP surface to shelf sediments				0.02^b
F LMP deep ocean to sediments				0.1^b
F SMP deep ocean to sediments				0.01^b
F SMP terrestrial to atmosphere				0.01^b
F SMP atm to terrestrial pool		1.1	37%	3.5
F SMP Discard to atmosphere		0.183	500%^a	0.2

Plastics are divided in macroplastics, P (> 5 mm), large microplastics, MP (0.3 – 5 mm), and small microplastics, SMP (< 0.3 mm). Uncertainties (1σ) on observations are based on the literature, except when not reported, in which case we assigned an uncertainty, denoted by ‘^a’. Uncertainties (1σ) on model estimated pools and fluxes are conservatively estimated to be 500% (denoted by ‘^b’), corresponding to a 2σ uncertainty of a factor of 10 (see Methods). The first column with M and F abbreviations correspond to parameter nomenclature used in mass balance Eqs. 1-18

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