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Evaluation of pollution caused by microplastics particles in municipal wastewater and sewage sludge (Case study: Al-Ghadir town, Kerman)
Summary
Researchers evaluated microplastic contamination in municipal wastewater and sewage sludge at a treatment plant in Kerman, Iran, collecting 36 paired wastewater and sediment samples monthly at approximately 30 liters per sample. The study characterized microplastic frequency, morphology, and composition across influent and effluent streams, identifying the plant as a significant microplastic discharge point.
Abstract With the increase in the production of plastics and their destructive effects on water quality, soil and the health of living organisms, It is necessary to know these materials and their production sources. Meanwhile, wastewater treatment plants are one of the main sources of discharge of microplastics into the environment. In the present study, the frequency of microplastics in wastewater and sediments of Kerman were evaluated. For this purpose, 36 samples of wastewater and sediments are taken simultaneously per month that in each sample, about 30 liters of wastewater was collected from the exhausting of initial deposition in 2021–2022. The percentage of organic materials in these samples was measured by using the hydrogen peroxide digestion method and the amount of microplastics was extracted and analyzed by a density-based separation method with sodium iodide salt. Investigation of microplastic contamination in wastewater sediments was done by the Van Veen Grab method. Separation of samples was performed by using hydrogen peroxide and the number of separated samples were determined by the amount of particles per 100 gram of dry sediment. Then the microplastics were examined in terms of color, shape and size. The results demonstrate that in samples of Kerman wastewater, 3576 microplastics were found, which about 98% were fiber types and about 2% were particle type, the dimensions of most of these particles were between 37–300 µm. In addition, 90% of microplastics found in wastewater were blue. There were about 4864 microplastics in all sediment samples. Of these, about 98% were related to fibers, 18% particles and 0.001% membranous particles. Sediment grading also demonstrate that the particle size of 100–250 µm had the highest frequency with 39%. In this investigation, the frequency of separated microplastics in red, black and blue were 30%, 26% and 22%, respectively. Based on the results of the analysis of the questionnaires, it was concluded that it’s not much needed to study microplastics and their sources of production and dissemination. The present study can provide useful information to get more acquainted with the types of microplastics sources and their classification, to control and monitor these pollutants in municipal wastewater.
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