The “plastic cycle”: a watershed‐scale model of plastic pools and fluxes

Research on plastics in global ecosystems is rapidly evolving. Oceans have been the primary focus of studies to date, whereas rivers are generally considered little more than conduits marine ecosystems. Within a watershed, however, all sizes retained, transformed, and even extracted via freshwater use or litter cleanup. As such, plastic terrestrial an important but underappreciated component pollution. To gain holistic perspective, we developed conceptual model that synthesizes sources, fluxes, fates for including containment (ie disposed landfill), non-containment persists as environmental pollution), mineralization, export oceans, atmospheric interactions, extraction. We used this “plastic cycle” illustrate which components received most scientific attention reveal overlooked pathways. Our main objective framework inform future research, offer new perspective adapt management across diverse waste governance scenarios, improve models litter.