Caracterização dos microplásticos na praia de Itaipu

Marine debris is a huge problem globally recognized, and their impacts go beyond the visual impact, affecting marine life in many different ways. That polymer is widely used because of its low cost, ease of shaping, and high durability. But that resistance causes the plastic to remain in the environment for many years and instead of decomposing it breaks in smaller pieces, that persist in nature. Those fragments are classified according to their size, and those who are smaller than 5 mm are called microplastics. The microplastics eventually reach the oceans because of the rain, the rivers or other factors; and their environmental impacts are also very important. That debris can absorb pollutants and carry contaminants and, when eaten by marine beings, they travel through the food chain. The aim of this work is quantify the microplastics at the Itaipu beach, in Niteroi, and we’ll do the physicochemical characterization of fragments found. We’ll use the Medium Infrared Spectroscopy (MIRS), that is very efficient in determining the polymer present in the composition of the plastic, and is an easy technique and has a low cost for sample preparation; besides that, we’ll use a microscope to analyze the physical characteristics of the fragments