Degradation of ‘biodegradable’ wet wipes in their receiving urban rivers - Data

This dataset supports the manuscript titled <i>“</i><i>Degradation of ‘biodegradable’ wet wipes in their receiving urban rivers</i><i>”.</i><i> </i>The environmental fate of cellulose-based “biodegradable” wet wipes in freshwater ecosystems remains poorly understood, despite growing market demand and legislative shifts banning plastic-containing alternatives. This study builds on a previous mesocosm-based study to investigate the environmental persistence and microbial degradation of two commercially available cellulose-based biodegradable wet wipe brands. Research was conducted in urban rivers and streams around Cardiff, UK.Material degradation was assessed through tensile strength testing of both whole wipes and wipe strips, the latter sized to match standardised cotton strip bioassays also used as ecologically relevant controls. Tensile strength was measured using a Zwick/Roell Z050 testing machine with self-tightening roller grips (fixed pull rate: 20 cm/min; preload: 1 N; preload speed: 5 cm/min; initial grip separation: 11.61 cm).The dataset includes:Weekly water chemistry data (e.g., pH, total dissolved solids, temperature, light; River_Conditions.csv)Continuous environmental data (temperature, light intensity; Rivers_Dataloggers.csv)Tensile strength loss results across wipe materials (full-sized and strips) and time points (Rivers_Strips.csv<i>).</i>Tensile strength loss comparison to Metcalf et al. 2024 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116175) converted using tensile strength loss per day equation. (Metcalf_converted_TSL_rates.csv).Data were collected over a five-week period between October and November 2024.An R script (Urban_Rivers_Code.R) is also provided to reproduce data processing, statistical analyses, and visualisation as described in the associated manuscript submitted for publication. Analyses were conducted using RStudio (version 4.3.1).