A battery of baseline toxicity bioassays directed evaluation of plastic leachates—Towards the establishment of bioanalytical monitoring tools for plastics

There are increasing concerns regarding the ecological risks of plastics to the natural environment, especially the potential effects of plastic leachates on organisms, which contain various toxic components. However, appropriate methods to assess the overall environmental risks of plastics are limited. In this study, five different plastic products (three conventional and two biodegradable plastics) were immersed in simulated freshwater, and their toxicity was assessed using a battery of bioassays. We evaluated the effects of plastic leachates effects on organisms from four trophic levels of species (nematodes, Caenorhabditis elegans; algae, Scenedesmus obliquus; daphnids, Daphnia magna; and fish, Danio rerio) by measuring their acute and chronic toxicity. Our results indicated that all plastic leachates exhibited poor acute and chronic toxicity to the organisms. The acute toxicity of conventional plastic leachates with EC20 values <1.6 g plastic/L was higher than that of the biodegradable polydioxanone (PPDO) leachate (EC20: 16.2–796.1 g plastic/L); however, the toxicity of PPDO-octane (EC20: 0.04–1.9 g plastic/L) was similar to that of polyethylene or polystyrene (excluding toxicity in D. magna). Similarly, the leachates of the three conventional plastics and PPDO-octane had obvious inhibitory effects on the growth of C. elegans at exposure concentrations higher than 0.01 g plastic/L; however, the toxicity of the PPDO leachates was at least an order of magnitude lower. Therefore, the environmental related concentration of the plastic leachates did not have significant toxic effects. Considering that a single bioassay does not provide comprehensive information on biological implications, this study provided a new integrated and efficient method for the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of plastic leachates. Moreover, the toxicity sensitivity of different organisms varied following exposure to different plastics, thus demonstrating that multiple organisms from different trophic levels should be included in the ERA for plastics.