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Typical economic activities reveal variations in microplastic pollution and ecological risks in the environment
Summary
Researchers found that microplastic pollution levels differ depending on the type of economic activity nearby, areas with landfills and dense urban activity had more plastic contamination and higher environmental risk than farmland or wastewater treatment sites. The plastics found were mostly common types like polyethylene and polypropylene (used in bags, packaging, and containers), suggesting everyday human consumption habits directly drive pollution levels. While overall ecological risk was relatively low, this research helps identify which types of communities and industries need stronger microplastic prevention policies, which is a first step toward reducing our broader exposure to these particles in food.
Although economic activity factors are somewhat associated with the pollution and distribution of Microplastics (MPs), this critical perspective has not yet been systematically elucidated in current research. This study, by analyzing the occurrence characteristics of MPs in multiple media from typical economic activity environments and quantitatively assessing the environmental risks of MPs using the Pollution Load Index (PLI), Polymer Hazard Index (PHI), and Potential Ecological Risk Index (PERI), reveals the differences in pollution patterns among economic activity environments. The results showed that soil/sediment predominantly accumulated larger, fiber, and colored particles (mean abundance: 160.4 ± 62.93 particles/kg), whereas water samples were dominated by smaller, film, and transparent MPs (mean abundance: 1.61 ± 0.62 particles/L). In different economic activity environments, MPs abundance was significantly higher in landfill (LF) and Yellow River Basin (YRB) areas than in agricultural land (AGL) and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), while polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), as the dominant polymers, indicate potential anthropogenic sources. MPs abundance was significantly positively correlated with socioeconomic factors (e.g., urbanization level, gross farm production), and their economic scale and consumption intensity may contribute to pollution input. Risk assessment results indicate that the overall ecological risk of MPs in different economic activity environments is relatively low, but the risk is higher in the urbanized living economic environment (LF), highlighting the dominant influence of highly toxic polymers on ecological risk. This study establishes an "economic environment-pollution-risk" response framework, which has important guiding significance for the prevention, control, and management of MPs risks in differentiated economic activity environments globally.