The dark side of artificial greening: Plastic turfs as widespread pollutants of aquatic environments

Plastics are regarded as a major threat to ecosystems worldwide. Global plastic production reaches peaks of about 450 million metric tons (Mt) annually (Geyer et al., 2017), while estimates of microplastics – plastics smaller than 5 mm in size – in the oceans continue to rise (Isobe et al., 2021).