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New Plastitar Record for the Mediterranean Sea: Characterization of Plastics and Tar from the Salento Peninsula (Ionian Sea)

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Submitted:

02 December 2024

Posted:

03 December 2024

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Abstract
The various forms of anthropogenic pollution are regarded as a serious threat to marine coastal areas. The overproduction and mismanagement of petroleum derivatives, such as tar and plastics, has resulted in a significant correlation between these two pollutants. The aggregation of tar, microplastics (MPs), and natural materials can create Plastitar blocks, which are common in coastal areas. These raise concern about the undeniable negative impact on the marine ecosystem and associate biota and serve as a recognizable and understandable indication of environmental decline. Here, the composition of the 11 Plastitar blocks collected on the Ionian side of the Apulia region (Italy) was characterized both in tar and plastics using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, respectively. Of the 250 particles extracted from the tar, 208 were identified as plastics, predominantly Polyethylene. The majority of these were in the form of pellets (90%), with fragments accounting for 5% and films and filaments representing the remaining 5%. This study provides new data that can be used to enhance the understanding of the distribution and baseline information about this novel form of pollution in Italian waters.
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Subject: Environmental and Earth Sciences  -   Environmental Science
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
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