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Effect of plastic waste pollution in seawater to microplastic contamination in salt fields at Rembang
Summary
This study found microplastic particles in sea salt harvested from salt pans in Rembang, Indonesia, tracing their origin to plastic waste in the surrounding seawater. The findings add to growing evidence that microplastics contaminate table salt, representing a direct route of human dietary exposure to plastic particles.
Plastic waste comes from household and industrial anthropogenic activities. The amount of plastic waste in Indonesian waters is 187.2 million tons per year. Plastic waste in the waters is degraded into small pieces <5mm in size, called microplastics. The raw material for making salt is sea water that enters the ponds to crystallization ponds. This study aims to analyze the number of microplastics in the salt fields in Rembang. The methods used are microscopy to count the number of microplastics (MPs) particles and FTIR to identify the types of microplastics in evaporation pond and salt crystal. The result showed that the average of the two locations obtained MPs as much as for location 1 as much as 15.5-16x103, location 2 as much as 13 x103-13.25x103 particles MPs / m3. The average sea water in the salt field in Rembang Regency is 14.44x103 particles of MPs / m3 The FTIR analyzed that evaporation pond, contains polymer type PS, PP, HDPE, Nylon, PET, Polyamide and for salt crystals at location 1 consisted of PS, PP, PE, PETE, Nylon plastics. Location 2 consists of PS, PP, PETE, Nylon, PVC plastics.