Plastic debris dataset on the Seine riverbanks: up to 38,000 pre-production plastic pellets reported per square meter.

Plastic pollution in rivers is a major source for plastic pollution into the ocean. However, it is now recognized that plastics may accumulate in rivers for years, especially in estuaries, before reaching the ocean. This long residence time favours fragmentation of macroplastics into smaller and smaller pieces, but relative data are still carse.

Transfer dynamics of macroplastics in estuaries - New insights from the Seine estuary: Part 3. What fate for macroplastics?

Macroplastic emissions from the Seine estuary to the English Channel were estimated using institutional cleaning of riverbanks, combined with a tagged litter experiment. Cleaning were performed between March 2018 and April 2019 by the non-profit company Naturaul'un over 19 sites covering 20 km of riverbanks. A total of 365 tagged litter (90% macroplastics) was released in the estuary in March (n = 200), at the end of the winter/spring flood 2018, in July (n = 58), August (n = 56) and September 2018 (n = 51) during low river flow periods.

Transfer dynamic of macroplastics in estuaries - New insights from the Seine estuary: Part 1. Long term dynamic based on date-prints on stranded debris.

Rivers are a major pathway for plastics between lands and the ocean. At the land-ocean interface, estuaries make the transfer dynamic of plastics complex and nonlinear. That is why very little is known about this dynamic.

Plastic debris dataset on the Seine river banks: Plastic pellets, unidentified plastic fragments and plastic sticks are the Top 3 items in a historical accumulation of plastics.

Plastic pollution in oceans and rivers is of high concern because of its persistence in the environment and its potential impact on ecosystems. However, there is a specific lack of data in rivers. Here we present data from the Seine river banks in a historical polluted shore.