article · Environments
Global scientific research on marine plastic management across reduction, recycling, and removal reveals changing priorities and persistent structural obstacles. Reduction research increasingly focuses on circular economy frameworks and multi-level governance models. Recycling literature shows growing attention to advanced chemical, biological, and artificial intelligence-supported methods operating alongside conventional mechanical recycling. Studies focused on clean-up and removal highlight technology-driven solutions, notably improved detection methods and remediation processes. However, practical implementation faces substantial constraints, including fragmented policy coordination, technological and economic barriers to scaling advanced recycling, and the high expense and complexity of marine clean-up efforts. Unresolved life-cycle trade-offs and persistent microplastics also reduce overall effectiveness. Meaningful long-term impact requires integrating prevention, material recovery, and remediation into cohesive technological and governance structures to stop plastic leakage into oceans.
Marine plastic pollution threatens marine ecosystems, yet current management methods face distinct operational and economic bottlenecks. Understanding how research themes are evolving helps environmental managers and policy makers identify critical gaps. Addressing scaling limits in advanced recycling and resolving policy fragmentation are vital steps towards building coordinated systems that prevent plastic leakage and protect vulnerable marine environments.
The analysis identifies market-relevant research areas, including artificial intelligence-supported recycling, advanced chemical and biological recovery methods, and automated detection and remediation technologies for clean-up operations. Intended users include recycling technology developers, waste management firms, and remediation operators. However, these solutions remain largely in early-stage research or face significant economic and technological hurdles to commercial scaling, alongside cost barriers in large-scale environmental deployment.
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Plastic pollution continues to threaten marine ecosystems and undermine efforts toward a circular economy. This study systematically maps global research on the three core waste management strategies, i.e., reduce, recycle, and remove (3R’s), to understand their intellectual structure, evolution, and emerging directions. Using both Scopus and the Web of Science, we apply bibliometric performance analysis and keyword co-occurrence network mapping to examine trends across plastic bans and regulation, recycling technologies, and clean-up initiatives. Research on reduction has increasingly incorporated themes related to multi-level governance and circular economy frameworks, based on observed changes in keyword patterns and thematic evolution. Recycling studies show an increasing presence of themes related to advanced chemical, biological, and AI-supported systems alongside established mechanical recycling approaches. Clean-up research increasingly includes themes related to technology-driven solutions, including improved detection and remediation approaches. Despite this progress, key challenges remain such as fragmented policy coordination, technological and economic limits to scaling advanced recycling, and the high cost and complexity of large-scale clean-up. Life-cycle trade-offs and persistent microplastics further constrain impact. Overall, future research must connect prevention, material recovery, and environmental restoration within coherent governance and technological systems to reduce plastic leakage and support long-term marine sustainability.
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DOI: 10.3390/environments13090483
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