He said that while it was expected New Zealand lakes would have some plastic pollution, the results were disappointing for a country that has a relatively low population density, and given Kiwi’s high level of personal responsibility for waste reduction.
The global results showed that not even the most remote lakes around the world were untouched by plastic pollution.
Led by Dr Veronica Nava, a research fellow at the University of Milan-Bicocca’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 79 researchers from the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) contributed samples for the study of 38 lakes across 23 countries and 6 continents. A number of New Zealand scientists also contributed to the work.
The study measured levels of small plastic particles, – microplastics through to macroplastics measuring a maximum of 10mm in diameter.
One of the more alarming results was the first data showing plastic pollution in some lakes is higher than the plastic ‘garbage patches’ in the ocean, the study said.
New Zealand lakes didn’t have levels to rival the ocean ‘garbage patches’ but Lake Rotorua was found to have the highest levels of plastic pollution of all the New Zealand lakes in the study.
“However, not a single lake in the research was unaffected by plastic pollution no matter how far it was from human activity, " Dr Özkundakci said.
“Plastic debris in freshwater systems is severely understudied in New Zealand. The invitation to contribute to a global study was an important opportunity to get baseline data on some of our lakes,” he said.
He would like to see the work built on for a larger survey of local lakes.
The study Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs was published in the scientific journal Nature on Wednesday, July 12.
