Litter in French urban areas - Part 2: transport dynamic and fluxes in stormwater.

Urban areas constitute a major hotspot of litter, including plastic litter, that stormwater can wash off towards waterways. However, few studies quantified and characterized litter densities in urban areas and fluxes transported by stormwater networks. Moreover, little information is available on litter transport dynamics in stormwater, and on the factors driving this transport. This study aims at characterizing and quantifying litter amounts transported by stormwater of two nested French urban catchments (total surface area of 105 ha). Litter densities relative to land uses and rain events were investigated in the same catchments as in a compagnon paper (Ledieu et al., 2024). The present study explores the impact of rain events on the transport of urban litter in stormwater. Litter collection and characterization combined with a capture/recapture experiment using tagged litter placed in stormwater inlets show total litter fluxes of 29 kg/year, in which 14 kg/year are plastics, exported at the stormwater outlet. These fluxes confirm that stormwater runoff is a considerable pathway from urban surfaces to waterways, especially regarding small plastic litter (< 2.5 cm). Item transport dynamic is however not linear and only 0.3% of the urban litter appear remobilized. Litter transport dynamics depends on several factors (urban litter densities, hydrometeorological parameters, item composition and morphologies, and stormwater management systems) that should be considered in global models.

Realistic assessment of tire and road wear particle emissions and their influencing factors on different types of roads.

This study aims to examine tire and road wear particle (TRWP) emissions under realistic conditions in order to provide some valuable insights into understanding their sources and fate in the environment. TRWP emissions were evaluated with a fully instrumented vehicle driving on five representative road types: urban, ring road, suburban, highway, and rural. Multiple vehicle dynamic variables were recorded to assess the factors influencing these emissions. For the first time, emitted particles were collected on filters and analyzed by means of pyrolysis coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to determine the polymeric content of tires, in specifically quantifying styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and butadiene rubber (BR) pyrolytic markers. The measurements obtained from the five road types revealed similar size distributions for SBR + BR emissions, with maxima found in the (ultra)fine fraction (< 0.39 µm). Upon applying an SBR + BR-to-TRWP conversion factor, (ultra)fine fraction TRWP emissions proved to be the highest for suburban (64 ± 5 µg/km), followed by highway, urban, ring road and rural routes. The output represents up to 480 tons of TRWP per year emitted in the EU27, thus suggesting a widely impregnated atmospheric compartment capable of threatening human health. Furthermore, an analysis of variables revealed that acceleration, tire constraints, and constant sustained driving factors had specific impacts on TRWP emissions.

Macrolitter dataset from a highly frequented roadway in Nantes, France.

Land-based sources of riverine macrolitter are now recognized as a major concern, but few field data on litter amount, composition and sources are available. This is especially the case for macrolitter hotspots like high frequented roadways that could generate large amount of macrolitter potentially reaching rivers. This dataset provides macrolitter amount and composition over one year from a retention pond collecting stormwater and carried macrolitter from a 800 m portion of a highly frequented roadway (around 90,000 vehicles per day). The typology of macrolitter was defined using the TSG-ML/OSPAR classifications. A total of 36,439 items in which 84% of plastics were individually counted, classified and weighted by category for a total mass of 88.5 kg (60% of plastics). Raw data are available in Mendeley Data (DOI:10.17632/t6ryv6crjd.4). Top 10 items represent 92% by count of the total with plastic fragments (31%), cigarette butts (18%), EPS fragments (17%) or foam packaging (11%) as most common items. Top 10 items represent 72% by mass of the total with plastic fragments (24%) and Cardboard (13%) as most common items, followed by foam packaging (6%), wood fragments (6%), industrial plastic sheets (5%), rubber fragments (4%) and EPS fragments (4%). More than 94% of plastic items are below 1.9 g/item. This dataset is related to the research paper Amount, composition and sources of macrolitter from a highly frequented roadway.