Assessment of microplastic contamination in municipal wastewater

Microplastic is an emerging global pollutant that have attracted a great deal of attention from researchers and the public. In the present study, the frequency of microplastics in wastewater of Kerman were evaluated. For this purpose, ۳۶ samples of wastewater are taken simultaneously that in each sample, about ۳۰ liters of wastewater was collected from the exhausting of initial deposition in September ۲۰۲۱. The percentage of organic materials in these samples was measured by using the hydrogen peroxide digestion method and the amount of microplastics was extracted and analyzed by a density-based separation method with sodium iodide salt. Separation of samples was performed by using hydrogen peroxide and the number of separated samples were determined by the amount of particles per ۱۰۰ gram of dry sediment. Then the microplastics were examined in terms of color, shape and size. The results demonstrate that in the ۳۰ liter sample of Kerman wastewater, ۵۶۴ microplastics were found, which about ۴۹۶ were fiber types and about ۵۰ were particle type, the dimensions of most of these particles were between ۳۷-۳۰۰ μm. In addition, ۹۰% of microplastics found in wastewater were blue.

کلیدواژه ها:

Microplastics ، Wastewater ، Anthropogenic activities.