Monitoring of pellets and mesoplastic fragments on Dutch beaches : update 2024

The median results for 2024, based on four locations, are: pellets: 745 per 100 m beach length and mesoplastic fragments: 565 per 100 m beach length. Both pellets and mesoplastic fragments counts are higher than the median results of 2023. Note that this must not be considered as a trend (for which six data years must be analyzed), and is probably caused by year-to-year variation. The average weight per pellet is 26.4 mg, and per mesoplastic fragment 49.5 mg.