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Identification of microplastics in landfill leachate: An underestimated tiny microplastics using Focal Plane Array (FPA)-based Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) imaging
Summary
Using advanced imaging-based infrared analysis, researchers detected up to 100 times more microplastics in landfill leachate than conventional methods had previously found — revealing that tiny particles between 10 and 100 micrometers are massively underestimated. Studying 13 landfills across China, they found that microplastic concentrations in the liquid runoff from landfills peak around 15 years of age, then decline as the landfill matures. The findings suggest that leachate from mid-age landfills is a major, underappreciated pathway for microplastics entering soils and waterways.
Landfills are significant contributors to the generation of microplastics (MPs) in the environment. However, how to accurately identify and quantify tiny MPs (10-100 µm) in landfill leachate remains an ongoing challenge. The identification of MPs in the leachate of operating and closed landfills was comparatively investigated using attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and focal plane array-based micro-Fourier-transform infrared (FPA-FTIR) imaging. The abundance of MPs detected by FPA-FTIR (70-235 items/L) was two-order magnitude higher than that by ATR-FTIR (2-7 items/L), indicating that FPA-FTIR was more efficient in detecting tiny MPs than ATR-FTIR. Furthermore, the MPs in landfill leachate from 13 different landfills in China, comprising both operating and closed landfills, were determined by FPA-FTIR. The morphology of MPs mainly consists of white fragments, and they are predominantly high-density engineering plastics, which make up 90 % of the total MPs. In operating landfills, the abundance of MPs ranged from 175 to 5320 items/L. The abundance initially increased to a maximum peak at around 15 years of landfill age, and then declined as the landfill continued to operate. In closed landfills, the abundance of MPs showed a decreasing trend with the increasing of landfill closure age. The operational conditions and landfill age significantly affect the quantity of MPs in leachate; however, they do not exert a notable influence on the morphological characteristics of MPs in leachate. This study provided valuable insights for evaluating the transportation and migration behavior of MPs from landfill cells into leachate.