Abstract
Plastics are lightweight, versatile, and durable materials used in the manufacture of a wide range of products. Innovation in the early 1950’s facilitated a dramatic reduction in production costs with the potential to mass produce inexpensive convenience items intended for single use applications. As a consequence, plastic production has grown exponentially over the last 75 years, and a throw away culture of single use has become deeply engrained in modern society. Plastic production exceeds 450 million tonne/yr, substantially exceeding our capacity to manage associated waste resulting in pollution accumulating in every compartment of the natural environment. While plastic pollution has received considerable attention from academic research, some knowledge gaps remain, particularly for more emerging contaminants and with regards to the relative importance of sources and their pathways in the environment. Such information is vital to guide interventions. Even more critically there is a substantial lack of evidence on the efficacy and potential unintended consequences of ‘solutions’ intended to address plastic pollution. This thesis helps to fill some of those knowledge gaps by providing primary data on the relative importance and pathways of two major sources of microplastics, synthetic fibres and tyre wear particles (TWPs) (Chapters 2 and 3), and further explores the fate and distribution of TWPs in the natural environment (Chapter 4). Mid and downstream measures to prevent entry, or removal of plastic pollution in the natural environment are examined in Chapters 5 and 6 respectively. Chapter 7 contextualises these findings and examines how they can be used to guide policy measures. Findings overwhelming evidence the importance of intervention at the design stage e.g. for textiles and tyres by modifying fibre structure, tread formulation, and wear resistance to reduce shedding during use. While interventions such wastewater treatment upgrades, installation of road drainage treatment systems, and clean-up devices can have some positive impact, they are less effective than prevention at source, thereby interventions become increasingly less effective as you move downstream. By improving product design standards, reducing toxic components, and implementing internationally consistent labelling and regulation, substantial reductions in plastic emissions to the natural environment could be achieved. The thesis concludes that prevention-focused strategies, combined with robust regulations and coordinated global action are essential to tackling the plastic pollution and safeguarding the natural environment.
Awarding Institution(s)
University of Plymouth
Supervisor
Richard Thompson, Daniel Conley
Keywords
Microplastics, Tyre wear particles, Marine pollution, TWPs
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Date
2026
Embargo Period
2026-03-23
Deposit Date
March 2026
Additional Links
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Parker-Jurd, F. (2026) Plastic pollution: Investigating environmental pathways and critically evaluating interventions. Thesis. University of Plymouth. Available at: https://doi.org/10.24382/m744-7t74
