Weather conditions, especially continuous rainfall, drive microplastics into city lakes, a new study reports. Other major pathways include stormwater runoff, wastewater treatment plants, littering zones and laundry facilities.

A recent study on the Dal lake in Srinagar looks at the routes that microplastics take to find their way into urban lakes. While microplastics contamination of freshwater systems is being widely reported as a pressing problem, there are only a few studies to explain how they could end up there.

The amount of plastics entering freshwater systems is forecast to increase from an estimated range of 9-14 million tons in 2016 to approximately 23-37 million tons by 2040, according to a United Nations Environment Programme report.

The new pathway-specific risk ass

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