Client: Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Year: 2025
eftec Team: Ece Ozdemiroglu, Thea Sletten, Oliver Pilkington, Allegra Naldini, Karli Jeffery, Graham Pattle, Natalya Kharadi, Su Gulmus, Paul Chung, Benjamin Hentschel, Ryan Nugraha
Partners: UKCEH
Full report: Accessible here
Microplastics are ubiquitous throughout nature, found within the deepest ocean trenches and the furthest polar regions of the planet. Typically defined as plastic particles smaller than 5 mm in size, microplastics can be the result of breakdown of larger (secondary) plastics or intentionally added to products (primary microplastics) to provide specific functions. This project focussed on intentionally added microplastics.
Commissioned by Defra, eftec and UKCEH joined disciplinary forces to improve the understanding of the potential socio-economic, environmental, and human health impacts of intentionally added microplastics in the UK, and the implications of different policy actions that could control their emissions.
Stakeholder engagement was conducted and spanned across key sectors such as cosmetics, detergents, oil and gas and agriculture. This collected UK-specific data on the use and release of intentionally added microplastics and, where UK data was not available, data from the EU Restriction proposal was scaled. A full socio-economic analysis compared six potential Risk Management Options (RMOs) over a 20-year period (2024–2043). The appraisal was aligned with the HM Treasury Green Book methodology and included cost-effectiveness analysis, exposure modelling, and development of environmental risk indicators.
Key findings include:
An estimated 160,000 tonnes of intentionally added microplastics are expected to be used in the UK over the next 20 years, with approximately 50,000 tonnes emitted into the environment.
The four largest emitting sectors are: synthetic sports surfaces (~17,000 tonnes), detergents and maintenance products (~14,000 tonnes), the oil and gas (~8,000 tonnes), and cosmetics (~7,000 tonnes).
Emissions were found to affect multiple environmental compartments. Agricultural soils receive the highest volumes, primarily due to sewage sludge application.
Urban soils and freshwater environments show the highest exposure, particularly from synthetic turf infill.
The options appraisal evaluated:
RMO 1A: Broad restriction covering most uses
RMO 1B: Restriction targeting high emission uses
RMO 1C: Restriction broadly aligned with EU REACH Restriction
RMO 2: Containment measures to prevent emissions of infill materials used in sports surfaces
RMO 3A: Reducing sewage sludge recycled to land by 95%
RMO 3B: Reducing sewage sludge recycled to land by 50%
The table below shows that none of the RMOs assessed clearly outperform the others across key impact indicators:
Restrictions on the use of intentionally added microplastics (RMO 1) were the most effective at reducing emissions and exposure in the UK but were the most expensive.
RMO 2 was identified as a low-cost option leading to significant exposure reductions in water environments.
RMO 3 primarily reduced exposure to soil, but would provide broader environmental co-benefits, such as reducing exposure to secondary microplastics, PFAS and pharmaceuticals present in sewage sludge recycled to land.
There are synergies between the RMOs, for example, implementing a targeted restriction in combination with RMMs for synthetic sports pitches would achieve the same exposure reduction capacity for a much smaller cost than a broader restriction.
The results of this project provide the UK government with a strong evidence base to inform future policy. It also presents recommendations for future research based on uncertainties and remaining data gaps identified. The final report has been published by Defra and will support next steps in managing microplastic pollution in the UK.