plastic debris can pose a risk to the marine environment by causing physical damage in marine organisms via ingestion or entanglement and also due to potential toxic effects caused by inherent plastic constituents and complex mixture of external contaminants adsorbed onto plastic derraik rochman etal marine litter is now recognized by a wide range of stakeholders as an environmental issue and is included in for instance the eu marine strategy framework directive msfd ec as one of the eleven qualitative descriptors which describe what the environment should look like to achieve or maintain good environmental status ges in the marine environment by european commission however it has also been recognized that as of today there is only a limited amount of information about the regional differences in sources levels composition fate and impact of marine litter in the marine environment