PHOTOtransformation of PLASTic particles in the environment - Finanziamento dell’Unione Europea – NextGenerationEU – missione 4, componente 2, investimento 1.1.

The 2-year PHOTOPLAST project (see FIGURE 1 for a general project scheme) aims at substantially advancing current knowledge in the field of environmental contamination by plastics, with particular emphasis on: (i) Photochemical reactivity and ageing of plastics in aqueous suspensions and gas-solid systems as relevant to, respectively, surface waters and soils, with a focus on the release of dissolved chemicals, representing an important step of plastic degradation with potential considerable environmental impact, and also affecting plastic susceptibility to fragmentation. (ii) Adsorption/desorption equilibria of contaminants (especially agrochemicals) on/from plastics (both pristine and aged), to elucidate the role of plastics in transport phenomena across environmental compartments, and to enable the use of plastics as indicators of multiple environmental contamination by the agrochemicals they carry on their surface. (iii) A field study concerning the evolution of plastic-based objects and plastic particles in shallow, ephemeral ponds, which are particularly exposed to sunlight during warm seasons when the water column gets shallower following water loss. This study will be carried out together with the use of insects as indicator organisms of plastic pollution. The project will consider macroplastics, microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs), where MPs will be specifically monitored in real environmental samples due to the availability of reliable analytical techniques and related expertise. To fully understand the fate and the effect of MPs’ presence in the environment, the ingestion ability and the impact of plastics will be assessed in terms of growth and life cycle of the house cricket (Acheta domesticus L.), an easily manipulated insect model, within an integrated approach. Reactivity and sorption studies will also focus on NPs, because their environmental behaviour is mostly unknown, while their small size and (therefore) very large surface area make NPs more reactive compared to larger plastics and more prone to adsorb pollutants. Moreover, sorption studies will contribute to elucidate the interaction between plastics and contaminants of concern occurring in agricultural run-off, also helping the understanding of how plastic modifications induced by ageing may affect their sorption/desorption behaviour. PHOTOPLAST is also designed for efficient knowledge transfer and dissemination towards various stakeholder groups, i.e., institutional bodies, scientific community and citizens, through a multitude of initiatives such as scientific conferences, newsletters, media coverage, and educational activities for students of all levels.