The power of environmental norms: marine plastic pollution and the politics of microbeads,
Environmental Politics, DOI:
10.1080/09644016.2018.1449090

ABSTRACT:

Emerging environmental norms gain strength and diffuse more quickly when
scientific evidence of harm is consolidating, when activism is
intensifying, and when political and corporate resistance is relatively
weak. The anti-microbead norm – that plastic microbeads should be
removed from personal care products – has been gaining global influence
since 2012; witness the upsurge in anti-microbead activism, public
concern, voluntary corporate phasedowns and governmental bans. By 2018,
the world was on track to eliminate microbeads from ‘rinse-off’ products
within a decade, reducing microplastics flowing into oceans by 1–2%.
This confirms the power of environmental norms, but how and why this
phaseout is occurring – unequally across jurisdictions, with firms
creating loopholes, missing deadlines and limiting the scope of reforms
– also reveals innate weaknesses of bottom-up, ad hoc norm diffusion as
a way of improving marine governance. These weaknesses are heightened
when economic stakes are high, solutions are complex and costly,
authority is fragmented across jurisdictions and corporate resistance is
strong.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LIF8aDtH5IjejTsWtIhcSi0Li5cGEOs1
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2018.1449090

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Abstract:

The need for better microplastic removal from wastewater streams is
clear, to prevent potential harm the microplastic may cause to the
marine life. This paper aims to investigate the efficacy of
electrocoagulation (EC), a well-known and established process, in the
unexplored context of microplastic removal from wastewater streams. This
premise was investigated using artificial wastewater containing
polyethylene microbeads of different concentrations. The wastewater was
then tested in a 1 L stirred-tank batch reactor. The effects of the
wastewater characteristics (initial pH, NaCl concentration, and current
density) on removal efficiency were studied. Microbead removal
efficiencies in excess of 90% were observed in all experiments, thus
suggesting that EC is an effective method of removing microplastic
contaminants from wastewater streams. Electrocoagulation was found to be
effective with removal efficiencies in excess of 90%, over pH values
ranging from 3 to 10. The optimum removal efficiency of 99.24% was found
at a pH of 7.5. An economic evaluation of the reactor operating costs
revealed that the optimum NaCl concentration in the reactor is between 0
and 2 g/L, mainly due to the reduced energy requirements linked to
higher water conductivity. In regard to the current density, the
specific mass removal rate (kg/kWh) was the highest for the lowest
tested current density of 11 A/m2, indicating that low current density
is more energy efficient for microbead removal.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsomega.7b02037

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1a2TCzCt3SU3AZYZo6WA4v8VLp1K1LeVp

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The power of environmental norms: marine plastic pollution and the politics of microbeads,

Environmental Politics, DOI:
10.1080/09644016.2018.1449090

ABSTRACT

Emerging environmental norms gain strength and diffuse more quickly when
scientific evidence of harm is consolidating, when activism is
intensifying, and when political and corporate resistance is relatively
weak. The anti-microbead norm – that plastic microbeads should be
removed from personal care products – has been gaining global influence
since 2012; witness the upsurge in anti-microbead activism, public
concern, voluntary corporate phasedowns and governmental bans. By 2018,
the world was on track to eliminate microbeads from ‘rinse-off’ products
within a decade, reducing microplastics flowing into oceans by 1–2%.
This confirms the power of environmental norms, but how and why this
phaseout is occurring – unequally across jurisdictions, with firms
creating loopholes, missing deadlines and limiting the scope of reforms
– also reveals innate weaknesses of bottom-up, ad hoc norm diffusion as
a way of improving marine governance. These weaknesses are heightened
when economic stakes are high, solutions are complex and costly,
authority is fragmented across jurisdictions and corporate resistance is
strong.
KEYWORDS: Global environmental governance, environmental norms,
transnational corporations, marine pollution, plastics, microbeads

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LIF8aDtH5IjejTsWtIhcSi0Li5cGEOs1

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Science of The Total Environment, Volumes 631–632, 1 August 2018, Pages 550-559, ISSN 0048-9697,

Abstract:

Microplastics are present in aquatic ecosystems the world over and may influence the feeding, growth, reproduction, and survival of freshwater and marine biota; however, the extent and magnitude of potential effects
of microplastics on aquatic organisms is poorly understood.
In the current study, we conducted a meta-analysis of published literature to examine impacts of exposure to microplastics on consumption (and feeding), growth, reproduction, and survival of fish and aquatic invertebrates.

While we did observe within-taxa negative effects for all four categories of responses, many of the effects summarized in our study were neutral, indicating that the effects of exposure to microplastics are highly variable across taxa.
The most consistent effect was a reduction in consumption of natural prey when microplastics were present. For some taxa, negative effects on growth, reproduction and even survival were also evident. Organisms that serve as prey to larger predators, e.g., zooplankton, may be particularly susceptible to negative impacts of exposure to microplastic pollution, with potential for ramifications throughout the food web. Future work should focus on
whether microplastics may be affecting aquatic organisms more subtly, e.g., by influencing exposure to contaminants and pathogens, or by acting at a molecular level.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g2nCqdcI1ZiaY36_ksAknNx8OSM3OeqQ
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.03.046.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718307630)

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Chenxi Wu, Kai Zhang, Xiaolong Huang, Jiantong Liu
Sorption of pharmaceuticals and personal care products to polyethylene
debris
Environmental Science and Pollution Research
First online: 26 January 2016
DOI 10.1007/s11356-016-6121-7

Abstract
Presence of plastic debris in marine and freshwater ecosystems is
increasingly reported. Previous research suggested plastic debris had a
strong affiliation for many pollutants, such as polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals.
In this study, the sorption behavior of pharmaceuticals and personal
care products (PPCPs), including carbamazepine (CBZ),
4-methylbenzylidene camphor (4MBC), triclosan (TCS), and 17α-ethinyl
estradiol (EE2), to polyethylene (PE) debris (250 to 280 μm) was
investigated. The estimated linear sorption coefficients (K d) are
191.4, 311.5, 5140, and 53,225 L/kg for CBZ, EE2, TCS, and 4MBC, and are
related to their hydrophobicities. Increase of salinity from 0.05 to 3.5
% did not affect the sorption of 4MBC, CBZ, and EE2 but enhanced the
sorption of TCS, likely due to the salting-out effect. Increase of
dissolved organic matter (DOM) content using Aldrich humic acid (HA) as
a proxy reduced the sorption of 4MBC, EE2, and TCS, all of which show a
relatively strong affiliation to HA. Results from this work suggest that
microplastics may play an important role in the fate and transport of
PPCPs, especially for those hydrophobic ones.

Keywords
Microplastics PPCPs Sorption Hydrophobic interaction Salinity Dissolved
organic matter

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12:25 PM TUE MARCH 3, 2015

UM researcher says microplastics could threaten Great Lakes fish

By APRIL VAN BUREN

Take a look in your medicine cabinet or your shower and you?re likely to
find microbeads. Those are the small plastic spheres used as exfoliants
in products like face wash or toothpaste. The tiny beads have been big
news since scientists found them showing up in the Great Lakes several
years ago. Last week, Michigan became the latest state to introduce
legislation that would ban products containing microbeads.

Current State speaks with Melissa Duhaime, a researcher in the
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of
Michigan. She?s been researching the impact of microplastic pollution in
the Great Lakes.

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Adam Hoffman and Ken Turner
Microbeads and Engineering Design in Chemistry: No Small Educational
Investigation
J. Chem. Educ., Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021/ed500623k
Publication Date (Web): January 16, 2015

Abstract: A multipart laboratory activity introducing microbeads was
created to meet engineering and engineering design practices consistent
with new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Microbeads are a
current topic of concern as they have been found to cause adverse
impacts in both marine and freshwater systems resulting in multiple
states proposing or adopting legislation to ban their manufacture or
sale. The activity allows for student inquiry, discovery, and
engineering design using inexpensive, readily available, and safe
chemicals. In addition, the products tested (toothpastes,
facial-cleansers, and/or hand-cleansers) will be familiar items to the
students, stressing the ubiquitous nature of chemistry. The activity
fostered confidence in the students through designing and testing
procedures, introduced them to a topic that most knew nothing about, and
drew praise for achieving the learning goals while investigating a
relevant real-world problem.

Keywords: High School/Introductory Chemistry; First-Year
Undergraduate/General; Environmental Chemistry; Hands-On
Learning/Manipulatives; Problem Solving/Decision Making; Microscale Lab;
Water/Water Chemistry; Laboratory Instruction; Collaborative/Cooperative
Learning; Inquiry-Based/Discovery Learning

http://pubs.acs.org/toc/jceda8/0/0

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