EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Marine Plastic Pollution: Sources, Impacts, and Policy Issues

Bethanie Carney Almroth and Håkan Eggert

Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2019, vol. 13, issue 2, 317-326

Abstract: Plastics have been instrumental in providing access to clean drinking water, medical applications, and improved hygiene and food safety. However, plastics also cause problems. More than 10 million tons of plastic enter the oceans annually. Marine plastic pollution has documented impacts on marine organisms and ecosystem services. The use of chemical additives in plastics also poses a potential threat to human health. While desirable, recycling of plastics is currently constrained by material and chemical complexity, limitations in available technologies, and market demands. This article provides a brief introduction to plastic materials, marine plastic pollution, and its potential effects on marine ecosystems and human health. We also discuss some of the policy and technical issues and suggest priorities for further research.

JEL-codes: Q00 Q01 Q20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/reep/rez012 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:renvpo:v:13:y:2019:i:2:p:317-326.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Environmental Economics and Policy is currently edited by Robert Stavins

More articles in Review of Environmental Economics and Policy from Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-22
Handle: RePEc:oup:renvpo:v:13:y:2019:i:2:p:317-326.