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. 2023 Mar 21;89(1):23. doi: 10.5334/aogh.4056

Figure 2.6.

Figure 2.6 Leakage of plastic into the environment across the plastic life cycle.

Plastic life cycle: Plastic leakage. Plastic and plastic-associated chemicals leak into the environment across all stages of the plastic life cycle. Chemical-laden macroplastics constitute the bulk of plastic leakage. Plastic polymers can take many years to degrade in the environment with the rate of degradation depending on many factors such as temperature, light and mechanical action.[9] Mt, Megatons; PET, polyethylene terephthalate; PVC, polyvinyl chloride;LDPE, low-density polyethylene. References: [1](Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2022a); [2](Karlsson et al., 2018); [3](Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2021); [4](Cole and Sherrington, 2016); [5](Paruta, Pucino and Boucher, 2022); [6](Hann et al., 2018); [7](Periyasamy and Tehrani-Bagha, 2022); [8](Ryberg, Laurent and Hauschild, 2018); [9](Chamas et al., 2020).

Credit: Designed in 2022 by Will Stahl-Timmins.