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Microplastiques Présents Dans Les Produits Résiduaires Organiques
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Researchers analyzed microplastics (50 um to 5 mm) across 21 categories of organic waste products using a standardized method, finding all but one of 167 samples contaminated and identifying PS, PE, PP, and PET as the most common polymers, with the highest particle counts in mechanically-biologically treated waste.
The work involved an analysis of microplastics (size fraction between 50μm and 5mm) in organic waste products (PRO). The originality of the study lies in the number of PRO families studied (21) using the same method, which makes the results comparable with each other, unlike the data collected in the literature. 167 samples were analyzed. It appears:- the most common polymers are PS, PE, PP and PET- all but 1 sample are contaminated- the number of particles in PRO from TMB >> PRO from food waste > PRO from WWTP sludge > Pulp from deconditioners > PRO from livestock effluent > PRO from green waste > agricultural digestates- 3/4 of PM are smaller than 1mm and therefore escape the threshold of the future "common base" regulation on fertilizing materials (resulting from the AGEC law), which sets a particle size requirement greater than 2mm.- the flux of particles brought to agricultural soils by the spreading of PROs is estimated annually at between one million and one billion particles per hectareThe toxicological or ecotoxicological impacts associated with this dispersion in agricultural soils are not assessed in the study, and current bibliographical knowledge is still incomplete.ADEME recommends limiting the use of plastics, improving their collection and recycling, and enhancing the performance of deconditioning engines.
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