The mixture of piche and plastic has been found in the badlands of Güímar, Arenas Blancas (El Hierro), Famara and Playa Grande (Tenerife).
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 3 (EUROPE PRESS) –
The research group in Applied Analytical Chemistry (AChem) of the University of La Laguna (ULL), which is part of the University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands, has identified a new type of coastal pollution composed mainly of tar — commonly known as piche– and plastic materials to which researchers have assigned the name ‘Plastitar’–tar is the English name for tar–.
This type of pollution originates from punctual spills of crude oil from ships, which when reaching the coasts cover the rocks of the coast, constituting a semi-solid matrix to which a multitude of plastic fragments of different shapes and sizes are incorporated.
In this work, recently published in the journal ‘Science of the Total Environment’, evidence of the presence of plastitar has been found in Malpaís de Güímar (Special Nature Reserve in Tenerife), Arenas Blancas (Rural Park in El Hierro), Famara (Natural Park in Lanzarote) and in Playa Grande (Tenerife), and its presence in other coastal areas of the archipelago is not ruled out.
In this last point, a rocky area located in the intertidal zone has been studied in detail, analyzing the type of plastic embedded in these formations, the ULL details in a note.
Fragments and pellets of polyethylene have been found, mostly, as well as polypropylene, which coincides with the type of microplastics that reaches the beaches of the Canary Islands, according to previous studies carried out by this same research group.
Other types of non-plastic waste such as wood and glass, as well as rocks and sand, were also found, although to a lesser extent.
The ‘Plastitar’ thus joins other types of new formations linked to the presence of plastic waste in the marine environment such as plastiglomerates, product of the incomplete and uncontrolled burning of waste, including plastics; the plasticrusts, plastic fragments embedded in the rocks of the coast by the action of the waves; the pyroplastics, with the shape and appearance of rock that arise from molten plastic residues and the anthropokines, sedimentary rocks that contain plastics and that are known as the cultural heritage of the Anthropocene.
The research team points out the importance of continuing to carry out studies that assess the degree to which the Canary coasts are affected by these pollutants, their degradation and their potential effects on the organisms present in the intertidal zone, as well as their possible presence in other parts of the world.
