Cargando…
Citizen science: A way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented surge of production, consumption, and disposal of single-use plastics (SUPs) and personal protective equipment (PPE) by the public. This widespread use of mostly plastic items like face masks and disposable gloves has led to global reports of im...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Elsevier B.V.
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8441093/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34536872 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149957 |
_version_ | 1783752806251888640 |
---|---|
author | Ammendolia, Justine Walker, Tony R. |
author_facet | Ammendolia, Justine Walker, Tony R. |
author_sort | Ammendolia, Justine |
collection | PubMed |
description | The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented surge of production, consumption, and disposal of single-use plastics (SUPs) and personal protective equipment (PPE) by the public. This widespread use of mostly plastic items like face masks and disposable gloves has led to global reports of improper disposal of potentially infectious PPE both in our urban and natural environments. Due to international travel restrictions during the pandemic, many research programs targeted at measuring plastic pollution were halted. These disruptions to research programs have stunted the ability to assess the true quantities of SUPs and PPE being mismanaged from the waste stream into the environment. This article calls for increased citizen science participation in collecting plastic pollution data both during and post pandemic. By initiating this dialogue and raising attention to the importance and potential of citizen science data collection, data can be used to develop globally informed plastic pollution mitigation strategies. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8441093 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Elsevier B.V. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84410932021-09-15 Citizen science: A way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic Ammendolia, Justine Walker, Tony R. Sci Total Environ Short Communication The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented surge of production, consumption, and disposal of single-use plastics (SUPs) and personal protective equipment (PPE) by the public. This widespread use of mostly plastic items like face masks and disposable gloves has led to global reports of improper disposal of potentially infectious PPE both in our urban and natural environments. Due to international travel restrictions during the pandemic, many research programs targeted at measuring plastic pollution were halted. These disruptions to research programs have stunted the ability to assess the true quantities of SUPs and PPE being mismanaged from the waste stream into the environment. This article calls for increased citizen science participation in collecting plastic pollution data both during and post pandemic. By initiating this dialogue and raising attention to the importance and potential of citizen science data collection, data can be used to develop globally informed plastic pollution mitigation strategies. Elsevier B.V. 2022-01-20 2021-08-27 /pmc/articles/PMC8441093/ /pubmed/34536872 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149957 Text en © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. |
spellingShingle | Short Communication Ammendolia, Justine Walker, Tony R. Citizen science: A way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic |
title | Citizen science: A way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full | Citizen science: A way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr | Citizen science: A way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | Citizen science: A way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_short | Citizen science: A way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_sort | citizen science: a way forward in tackling the plastic pollution crisis during and beyond the covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Short Communication |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8441093/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34536872 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149957 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT ammendoliajustine citizenscienceawayforwardintacklingtheplasticpollutioncrisisduringandbeyondthecovid19pandemic AT walkertonyr citizenscienceawayforwardintacklingtheplasticpollutioncrisisduringandbeyondthecovid19pandemic |