Consistent patterns of debris on South African beaches indicate that industrial pellets and other mesoplastic items mostly derive from local sources

Identifying the sources of small plastic fragments is challenging because the original source item seldom can be identified. South Africa provides a useful model system to understand the factors influencing the distribution of beach litter because it has an open coastline with four equally-spaced urban-industrial centres distant from other major source areas. We sampled mesodebris (∼2-25 mm) at 82 South African beaches in 1994, 2005 and 2015....