Plastics and Five Heavy Metals from Sea Beaches: A Geographical Synthesis of the Literary Information

Abstract

Pollution of the oceans and seas, as well as their coastal zones, with plastics has become serious challenge, which is also related to the Anthropocene marine geology and geochemistry. Notably, plastics can bear heavy metals. The related knowledge is scattered through scientific publications, and, thus, it needs generalization. The present study synthesizes the published information about the geographical distribution of cadmium, chromium, mercury, nickel, and zinc associated with plastics on sea beaches. A bibliographical survey is undertaken, and the collected literary information is organized so as to document the principal localities of beached plastics bearing these metals. About twenty localities are established in many parts of the world, and the majority of them correspond to the coasts of the Atlantic and Indian oceans and their seas. Significant attention has been paid by the previous researchers to Northwest Europe and South and East Asia. The available information is enough to postulate the global extent of the problem of heavy metals association with plastics on beaches. Real or potential risks to the environment were reported in many cases. This review also shows that the industry of tourism, hospitality, and recreation contributes to the accumulation of such plastics. The analyzed literary information demonstrates several biases: for instance, Hg-bearing plastics on beaches were reported from the smaller number of localities relatively to the other metals, and the beaches and coastal recreational areas of many regions are yet to be studied in regard to heavy metals associated with plastics.