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The Temporal and Spatial Variations of Microplastics in Sewage Discharges of Bandar Abbas City (Iran), Persian Gulf
Summary
Researchers characterized microplastic concentrations in raw sewage entering a wastewater treatment plant in Bandar Abbas, Iran, finding seasonal and spatial variation with larger particles (300–500 µm) most abundant and the plant more effective at removing large particles than small ones. The study confirms that smaller, harder-to-remove microplastics persistently escape treatment and enter the Persian Gulf, contributing to marine contamination in an ecologically sensitive coastal region.
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are one of the main sources entering microplastics (MPs) from industrial and domestic wastewater outputs into the aquatic environment. Here, the temporal and spatial variations in the occurrence of MPs of sewage discharges entering the WWTP of Bandar Abbas were assessed for the first time. The MPs were isolated by hydrogen peroxide digestion and subsequent density separation using NaCl2 solution. The number of MPs was variable from 5 (100–300 µm) to 256 (> 500 µm) (the average 78.05 ± 5.02) in surface wastewater and 6 (< 100 µm) to 13 (> 500 µm) (the average 0.90 ± 0.06) in depth wastewater. The lowest (74.05 ± 10.08) and the highest (84.48 ± 10.66) number of MPs were found in winter and spring, for surface wastewater. In depth wastewater, the number of MPs was variable from 0.3 ± 0.05 to 1.57 ± 0.18 in autumn and spring, respectively. MPs of a range size 300–500 µm were the most frequent MPs found in the sewage discharges with a mean of 165.33 ± 3.80 and 1.47 ± 0.14 for surface and deep wastewaters. Wastewater treatment plant indicated almost higher efficiency in removing MPs of large (> 500 µm) than small sizes (100–300 µm) with a reduction of 2.54 to 98.38% for surface wastewater and 7.31 to 100% for deep wastewater. MPs with a variety of colors were detected including blue, white, and transparent. The base on FT-IR analysis, polyethylene (30%), and polypropylene (30%) were detected as the most abundant polymers of MPs in sewage discharges of Bandar Abbas. The findings highlight the lower efficiency of WWTP in removing low-size MPs which is needed to put a mitigation plan for MPs as a potential emerging threat detected in the Persian Gulf.