Microplastics in the Mount Terminillo (Rieti, Italy) Snow’s

Microplastics (MPs) concentrations in atmospheric fallout is a growing environmental concern, this paper reports data regarding the MPs pollution determined using snow samples collected in wintertime and in 6 different areas on Mount Terminillo (2216 m a.s.l.) a typical Apennines massif located north of Rome. Assessment results show that the maximum average concentration found on snow is 74.69 ± 71.43 MPsL−1 of melted snow. The results of the characterization show that the most common MPs form was microfibers having dimensions < 5 mm. The largest MPs were characterized by Fourier Transformed IR (FTIR) analysis, among the polymer materials, the most abundant were polyamide (PA, 25.93%), polyethylene terephthalate (PET, 22,23%), polyester (PES, 17.28%) polypropylene (PP, 8.64%) and polyethylene (PE, 7.40%). The presence of polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) fibers and a fragment of Acrylonitrile–Butadiene–Styrene (ABS), typical materials of technical clothing, shows that MPs contamination is also due to recreational activities as well as atmospheric deposits. The Carbonyl Index values indicated that some MPs (PE, PP) are degraded. The analysis of the sampled snow and the comparison with the results of similar papers, confirms the extension of the phenomenon related to the diffusion of microplastics in the environment indicating the severity of the atmosphere and the recreational activities as a source of pollution. Furthermore, this research has demonstrated that snow can be an effective environmental matrix to monitor the presence of MPs but standardized testing protocols could be upgraded to improve the comparability of the results obtained.