The challenge of reducing macroplastic pollution: Testing the effectiveness of a river boom under real environmental conditions

BLETTLER MARTIN CESAR MARIA; AGUSTINI EVER; ABRIAL ELIE; PIACENTINI RUBEN; GARELLO, NICOLÁS; WANTZEN, KARL M.; VEGA MARCELO; ESPINOLA LUIS ALBERTO

Science of the Total Environment

Elsevier B.V.

Año: 2023 vol. 870

Improving collection technologies is crucial to develop effective and economically feasible solutions for catching plastic from riverine environments. However, floating booms are being constructed and deployed in river around the world without rigorously testing its effectiveness. In this study, we tested the effectiveness of a boom under realistic conditions for several configurations and treatments (including "C-shape" and "Slash-shape" configurations). For this, we used the same macroplastics that leak out of waste management channels in order to be as realistic as possible. In total we used 52 plastic articles of 13 different polymers. The global effectiveness of the tested C-shape boom was lower than expected under such conditions (around 37 % of retention). The effectiveness of the Slash-shape boom was considerably worst (