Seite - 240 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?

The complexity of these particulate stressors with very heterogeneous physico- chemical characteristics poses new challenges for regulation andmanagement.We highlight themost importantquestionsfromtheperspectiveoffreshwatermonitoring. Furthermore,wediscuss apossibleadaptionofexistingenvironmentalpolicy instru- ments andpotentialmanagementoptions for single categories of (micro)plastics. Keywords Environmental plastics, Microplastics definition, National– international, Policy instruments, Science–policy interface 1 Introduction “Microplastics” (MPs)area topicofdiscussion inall typesofmediaandareoneof the environmental issues also stronglydebatedby thepublic (see [1]).Aquestion- naire sent to the representatives responsible forwatermonitoringandmanagement inEuroperevealed thataround50%of theEuropeanpopulation isdiscussingabout MPs and its potential harm to the environment and human health [2]. Hence, the public expects policy-makers to tackle the problem and to manage it as soon as possible. In fact, awareness about this issue is increasing in policy. Some of the most important and worldwide acting international and intergovernmental bodies are debatingabout theglobal problemof environmental plastics (e.g.,UnitedNations, G7,World Bank,World Economic Forum, etc.). Beyond that, the (micro)plastic issue is already addressed in a few regulations and policy instruments on interna- tionalandnational level (seeSects.2.1and2.2).AsmostenvironmentalMPsresult from incorrect disposed and fragmentedplastic litter (see [3]), themanagement of MPs is closely related toavarietyofpolicyareas.Additionally, regulatory respon- sibilities can change along the product life of a single plastic product and include plastic productionandproductdesign, tradeandconsumerbehavior, recyclingand wastemanagement (summarized as “land-based policies”), aswell aswastewater management andwater protection (“water-based policies”). Hence, the regulation of plastics is already considered in several directives, guidelines, agreements, etc. addressing the application of plastic products, startingwith regulations on plastic monomers and additives (e.g., REACH;1 see Sect. 2.2.3). The use of plastic products is especially regulated in sensible applicationfields, e.g., foodpackaging. Recently, management strategies increasingly aim at plastics that either are not needed for the function of a product or do not benefit the user or can easily be replacedbyothermaterials –e.g., carrier bags (seeSect. 2.2.2) orMPs inpersonal careproducts (seeSect.2.3).Variousdirectivesaddress therecyclingordisposalof plastics at the endof product life (seeSect. 2.2.2). Given an efficient plastic management, including waste and wastewater control, plastics should not enter environmental systems. However, they do. Problematically, environmental plastics are outside the intended product life. 1Regulationconcerning theRegistration,Evaluation,AuthorisationandRestrictionofChemicals. 240 N.Brennholt et al.