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Study of the litter in the urban environment as primary and secondary microplastics sources
Summary
Researchers studied urban litter as a source of both primary and secondary microplastics in cities across Khuzestan province, Iran, using environmental cleanliness indices. They found that the density of primary microplastic sources from littering was substantially higher than secondary sources, with an estimated 150 grams of primary microplastics released per year per city from litter alone. The study highlights the importance of improving urban waste management to control one of the most dispersed sources of microplastic pollution.
Microplastic is one of the most important environmental challenges of recent decades. Although the abundance of microplastics in water sources and water bodies such as the marine were investigated in many studies, knowing the sources of microplastics requires more studies. In this study, litter was investigated as one of the challenges of urban management and the sources of primary microplastic and secondary microplastic in the urban environment. For this purpose, Clean Environment Index and Cigarette Butt Pollution Index, were used to interpret the density of litter and estimate the abundance of microplastic resources in Khuzestan province, Iran. The results showed that the density of litter in the studied cities was 0.0001-0.6502 items/m. The calculated clean environment index and cigarette butt pollution index were 0.211-35.05 and 0.112-12.897, respectively. The density of primary microplastic and secondary microplastic sources in the studied cities was 47,207-62,767 µg/m (average = 52782) and 2127-3140 µg/m (average = 2570), respectively. The abundance of primary microplastic due to littering in the studied cities was estimated at 150 g/year. Reducing the ratio of littering waste in the urban environment and increasing the efficiency of the urban cleaning service is necessary to manage the most dispersed source of microplastics in the urban environment.