Is this your glitter? An overlooked but potentially environmentally-valuable microplastic

Abstract

As microplastic pollution evolved to a well-established research field, microplastic scientists started to explore new avenues in the field. Yet, while a multitude of different types of microplastics (microbeads, fibres, fragments) have been well-documented in microplastic literature, our analysis of this literature shows that glitter particles have been overlooked by the field. However, due to the presence of glitter-based research in forensic science, we explore the idea that glitter may have the potential to act as "flag items" - or markers - of a likely source, due to the often complex and individual composition of glitter particles compared to traditional microplastics, such as microbeads. As such, this article demonstrates glitter has insofar been overlooked as a microplastic particle, and demonstrates that glitter may have an important role in explaining microplastic pollution dynamics from source to sink.

Keywords: Cosmetic products; Forensic science; Marine pollution; Microbeads; Tracking plastic sources.