Micro plastic Pollution in Coastal Water and Beach Sediments at Adyar and Cooum River Estuaries in Chennai Coast

Plastics having number of applications all over the world and its great usage lead to rapid increase in plastic production and disposal. Around 400 million tons of plastics produced per year worldwide, out of this only 18% of plastics recycled that has led to its poor disposal practice because discharged plastics overcome in the environment for several 100 years either in their original or fragmented form. The fragmentation of particles are caused by several factors like wind currents, wave currents, abrasions etc., leading to various sizes which are classified as macro- (≥25mm), meso-(<25mm–5mm) micro- (<5mm–1μm) and further Nano-plastics (<1μm).This study manly focusses on quantification of Micro plastics which can be identified in different shapes such as spherical beads (pellets), films, fragments, foam, fibers etc., and are generally composed of polyethylene (0.91-0.97 g/mL), polypropylene (0.94 g/mL), polyvinyl chloride (1.4 g/mL), and polystyrene (1.05 g/mL). For this analysis of micro plastic existence, the water samples have been collected from two locations such as Adyar and Cooum estuaries. 10 samples have been collected each location and carried over to the laboratory for FTIR- Spectrometer (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer) analysis along with the protocol laid by the NOAA. Typical infrared spectrum covers between 2.5 µm to 25 µm (4000 to 400 ).