Macrolitter dataset from a highly frequented roadway in Nantes, France

Land-based sources of riverine macrolitter are now recognized as a major concern, but few field data on litter amount, composition and sources are available. This is especially the case for macrolitter hotspots like high frequented roadways that could generate large amount of macrolitter potentially reaching rivers. This dataset provides macrolitter amount and composition over one year from a retention pond collecting stormwater and carried macrolitter from a 800 m portion of a highly frequented roadway (around 90,000 vehicles per day). The typology of macrolitter was defined using the TSG-ML/OSPAR classifications. A total of 36,439 items in which 84% of plastics were individually counted, classified and weighted by category for a total mass of 88.5 kg (60% of plastics). Raw data are available in Mendeley Data (DOI:10.17632/t6ryv6crjd.4). Top 10 items represent 92% by count of the total with plastic fragments (31%), cigarette butts (18%), EPS fragments (17%) or foam packaging (11%) as most common items. Top 10 items represent 72% by mass of the total with plastic fragments (24%) and Cardboard (13%) as most common items, followed by foam packaging (6%), wood fragments (6%), industrial plastic sheets (5%), rubber fragments (4%) and EPS fragments (4%). More than 94% of plastic items are below 1.9 g/item. This dataset is related to the research paper Amount, composition and sources of macrolitter from a highly frequented roadway.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC

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