Developing a roadmap for Plastics Europe and its members to accelerate the industry’s transition towards 2050. This will include interim milestones/targets and more ambitious policy recommendations, and the development of mechanisms designed to support and incentivise the industry. This roadmap will report/review the targets being set by its members and the progress being made. Plastic pollution has also greatly negatively affected our environment. "The pollution is significant and widespread, with plastic debris found on even the most remote coastal areas and in every marine habitat". [75] This information tells us about how much of a consequential change plastic pollution has made on the ocean and even the coasts. Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate, Department of Geosciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

Microplastics alter soil biophysical properties which affect the quality of the soil. This affects soil biological activity, biodiversity and plant health. Microplastics in the soil alter a plant's growth. It decreases seedling germination, affects the number of leaves, stem diameter and chlorophyll content in these plants. [96] The third type of model output is independent of the MPW generation input data and is presented in a ‘potential plastic routing map’. This output focuses on the potential pathways of macroplastic waste through a river basin. 3 ResultsPlastic surgeons perform both reconstructive and aesthetic surgery. Majority of NHS plastic surgery is reconstructive surgery that focuses on restoring the function and look of affected body parts following trauma or illness. Conceptualisation: YM, TE; Methodology: YM, TE; Software: YM; Validation: YM, TE; Formal analysis: YM, TE, MK, CL; Investigation: YM; Data curation: YM; Writing–original draft: YM; Writing–review and editing: YM, TE, MK, CL, HN; Visualisation: YM; Supervision: TE, HN; Project administration: YM; Funding acquisition: TE. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Funding The land use input defines for each grid cell the type of land use. Land use data can be extracted from a database such as the ESA CCI Land Cover time-series ( Land Cover CCI Product User Guide Version 2.0, 2017). The Plastic Pathfinder distinguishes between water and five types of land use: Good practice examples for the increased circularity pathway are often related to the increased collection, sorting and recycling of plastics achieved through business, policymaker and citizen initiatives. These are discussed below. Increased collection and sorting of plastic

Alongside its scientific significance, the Plastic Pathfinder has a societal relevance as well, as it can provide guidance on the prioritisation of plastic pollution prevention, mitigation and reduction strategies. By knowing when and where plastics on land accumulate and which transport routes they take, targeted clean-up and entrapment strategies can be developed. The removal of plastics from the natural environment is a matter of great urgency, because plastic waste poses serious threats to species health and human livelihood in general ( van Emmerik and Schwarz, 2019; Windsor et al., 2019; Bucci et al., 2020; Everaert et al., 2020). Data availability statement Biodegradable plastics are recommended for only very specific uses in the European Commission’s communication on biobased, biodegradable and compostable plastics and should not be seen as a solution to inappropriate waste management and littering (EC, 2022). As of today, there are no plastic transport models that simulate the trajectories of MPW between these terrestrial compartments ( Wayman and Niemann, 2021), whereas such models have already been successfully developed for the marine environment ( Lebreton et al., 2012; Maximenko et al., 2012; van Sebille et al., 2012; Hardesty et al., 2017; Delandmeter and van Sebille, 2019; Onink et al., 2021). Therefore, we developed the Plastic Pathfinder, a macroplastic transport and fate model that simulates the pathways and spatiotemporal distribution of MPW within the terrestrial parts of river basins. The model concept is based on the assumption that macroplastic waste is mobilized and transported when the driving forces, in this case wind and surface runoff, overcome the terrain friction caused by the (combination of the) terrain slope and type of land use. Our model additionally identifies where terrestrial pollution enters freshwater systems, which makes it valuable for the coupling with existing freshwater plastic transport models. In this paper, we introduce the basic concepts of the Plastic Pathfinder and demonstrate its use through application to an idealized case study. Besides the significant contribution to a better fundamental understanding of plastic transport and accumulation in terrestrial systems, the Plastic Pathfinder is a useful tool for developing and improving (inter)national plastic monitoring, collection and mitigation strategies. 2 Materials and methods This briefing provides an overview of good practice examples of these pathways, including from policymakers, business and citizens. There is no ‘one solution fits all’ for circular and sustainable plastics. The examples provide inspiration, are scalable and can therefore help to build the foundations of an increasingly circular and sustainable plastics economy. This briefing is underpinned by a more detailed report prepared by the European Topic Centre on Circular Economy and Resource Use (ETC/CE).There are plastic surgery training programmes in all the English regions as well as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Outside the UK, British trainees are also welcomed for training by units in Ireland. Some researchers suggest that by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by weight. [11] Living organisms, particularly marine animals, can be harmed either by mechanical effects such as entanglement in plastic objects, problems related to ingestion of plastic waste, or through exposure to chemicals within plastics that interfere with their physiology. Degraded plastic waste can directly affect humans through direct consumption (i.e. in tap water), indirect consumption (by eating plants and animals), and disruption of various hormonal mechanisms. [12] In our model application we used option 1, i.e., the wind speed thresholds are a function of only the type of land use. 2.6.2 Surface runoff thresholds A 2017 study found that 83% of tap water samples taken around the world contained plastic pollutants. [90] [91] This was the first study to focus on global drinking water pollution with plastics, [92] and showed that with a contamination rate of 94%, tap water in the United States was the most polluted, followed by Lebanon and India. European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France had the lowest contamination rate, though still as high as 72%. [90] This means that people may be ingesting between 3,000 and 4,000 microparticles of plastic from tap water per year. [92] The analysis found particles of more than 2.5 microns in size, which is 2500 times bigger than a nanometer. It is currently unclear if this contamination is affecting human health, but if the water is also found to contain nano-particle pollutants, there could be adverse impacts on human well-being, according to scientists associated with the study. [93]

EEA, 2021, ‘A framework for enabling circular business models in Europe’ ( https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/a-framework-for-enabling-circular#:~:text=Circular%20business%20models%20can%20enable%20the%20meeting%20of,all%20phases%20of%20the%20life%20cycle%20%28EEA%2C%202019a%29.) accessed 10 February 2023.A further example is the various extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, which can promote product design for circularity, the collection of end-of-life products and circular recycling to high-value materials that promotes the use of eco-modulated fees that favour recyclable (and sustainable) products. Once the Plastic Pathfinder contains empirically proven mobilisation and transport thresholds, the model predictions would ideally be calibrated and validated with observational data. The modelled macroplastic waste distribution on land can be compared with actual macroplastic distribution data; quantified by e.g., field plastic collection efforts ( van Emmerik et al., 2020), citizen litter collection projects ( Syberg et al., 2020), or optical satellite data ( Biermann et al., 2020). We anticipate that future collaborations with field collection and monitoring projects allow for a fast and robust calibration of the Plastic Pathfinder and improve the validity of its predicted MPW transport and fate in river basins. 4.1.2 Future recommendations The model is built on a rectangular [longitude, latitude] grid, with equally sized grid cells. Input data values, i.e., grid cell properties (e.g., elevation, land use, wind, and rain), are assigned to each grid cell and assumed to be representative for the entire area of land covered by that grid cell. The Plastic Pathfinder can operate on any desired spatial or temporal resolution depending on the required degree of detail and resolution. In our model application, we use a model domain of 30 by 30 arc seconds, a 3 by 3 arc seconds resolution (i.e., 10 by 10 grid cells), a modelled period of 1year and a temporal resolution of 1 day. 2.4 Modelled directions of motion The increase in plastic and microplastic pollution in soils can cause adverse impacts on plants and microorganisms in the soil, which can in turn affect soil fertility. Microplastics affect soil ecosystems that are important for plant growth. Plants are important for the environment and ecosystems so the plastics are damaging to plants and organisms living in these ecosystems. [96] Increasing the collection, sorting and recycling of plastics after use is essential for meeting the goals for better plastic waste management. Collecting and sorting plastics both reduces the amount of plastic littering and microplastics in terrestrial and marine environments and helps to secure the infrastructure needed to increase plastic recycling. In recent years, business has taken many initiatives in response to the growing focus on recycling.

Most good practice examples found are small scale and would need to be scaled up and implemented much more broadly to strengthen the circular plastics economy. More examples are found in waste management than in design, production or use. Some trainees may need to self-fund extra education courses due to limited funding for plastic surgery training. Here, we present the spatiotemporal distributions and transport routes of MPW that we found for our model application. The modelled MPW transport and accumulation are controlled by the values chosen for the plastic mobilisation and transport thresholds ( Table 1), which resulted in the wind speed and surface runoff threshold maps shown in Supplementary Figure S4A,B, respectively. We are aware of the fact that those threshold values have no empirical basis yet. Here, we merely intend to demonstrate the potential and applicability of the output of the Plastic Pathfinder model and show that this model can serve as an effective tool to examine how weather conditions can be used to predict the accumulation and transport processes of macroplastics on land. 3.1 Spatiotemporal macroplastic distribution 3.1.1 River basin scale Meijer, L. J., Van Emmerik, T., Van Der Ent, R., Schmidt, C., & Lebreton, L. (2021). More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean. Science Advances, 7(18). There are three main types of output created by the Plastic Pathfinder. First of all, the wind speed and surface runoff threshold maps that show the critical wind speeds and surface runoff fluxes, respectively, which are required to mobilise and transport macroplastic.

All motions modelled by the Plastic Pathfinder occur in the two-dimensional horizontal plane. Analogous to the approach of Jenson and Domingue ( Jenson and Domingue, 1988), the modelled components, i.e., air (wind), water (surface runoff) and plastics, can only move from a given grid cell to a neighbouring grid cell. As the model uses a rectangular grid, motion is restricted to eight directions: north, northeast, east, southeast, south, southwest, west and northwest. The fact that the travel distance to diagonal grid cells (i.e., towards the cells in the northeast, southeast, southwest and northwest) is longer than the travel distance to perpendicular grid cells (i.e., towards the cells in the north, east, south and west), is accounted for in the design of the thresholds that control the displacement of plastic waste. 2.5 Model input 2.5.1 Topography The Plastic Pathfinder is the first explicit spatiotemporal framework that models the transport of macroplastics in terrestrial environments. However, there are still many uncertainties associated with the accuracy of the model parameterisation, because data are scarce. The current version of the Plastic Pathfinder model uses one threshold for all types of plastic waste. The effect of this assumption on the modelled versus actual plastic accumulation depends on whether the threshold values that were used are an over- or an underestimation. If the thresholds are an overestimation, then the modelled plastic accumulation is likely to be slightly overestimated as well. On the other hand, if the thresholds are an underestimation, then the modelled plastic accumulation is likely to be slightly underestimated as well. Therefore, the next important step is to empirically determine the mobilisation and transport thresholds. For example, physical experiments (e.g., on artificial hillslopes) can elucidate under which wind and surface runoff conditions different types of macroplastics are mobilised and transported over terrains with varying slopes and land uses. Such experiments would offer valuable insights on the mobilisation and transport thresholds of different types of plastic waste (e.g., size, shape, density, wet/dry, etc.) ( Schwarz et al., 2019). Moreover, from these experiments the relation between wind speed and plastic transport speed, and surface runoff intensity and plastic transport speed can be explored. These velocities can be used to estimate the travel time of plastics through the terrestrial environment and thereby improve our estimates on the amount of land based MPW that reaches the river, and subsequently the ocean. Effluent and sludge of wastewater contain large amounts of plastics. Wastewater treatment plants don't have a treatment process to remove microplastics which results in plastics being transferred into water and soil when effluent and sludge are applied to land for agricultural purposes. [98] Several researchers have found plastic microfibers that are released when fleece and other polyester textiles are cleaned in washing machines. [99] These fibers can be transferred through effluent to land which pollutes soil environments. [97] Women are represented in all surgical specialities and at all levels of surgical training however there are still fewer female surgeons compared to male counterparts. Only 25% of plastic surgeon consultants in England are female based on 2019 data from NHS Digital (2) Biodegradable plastics are designed to degrade in specific mediums under specific conditions, meaning that they do not necessarily degrade in the open environment. Often, biodegradable plastics cannot be recycled together with non-biodegradable plastics.