Microplastics in Widely Used Polypropylene-Made Food Containers

Abstract

As a potential threat to human health, ingestion of microplastics (MPs) has become of concern. Limited studies have carefully characterized the occurrence of MPs in polypropylene-made takeout food containers (TOFCs), which have been widely used in China. In this study, TOFC samples (n = 210) were collected from seven Chinese cities (Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xining, Chengdu, Qingdao, and Dalian) and analyzed for MPs. All the TOFC samples contained MPs, with an abundance of 3–43 items/TOFC. The TOFCs from Chengdu (25 items/TOFC) contained the highest mean abundance of MPs, which is significantly (p < 0.01) higher than that from Shanghai (8.7 items/TOFC). Fiber accounted for 66–87% of the total for the shape of the MPs in the TOFCs from the different Chinese cities. Most of the MPs in the TOFCs from the different cities had a size of 201–500 μm and accounted for a mean 34–42% of the total MPs in the TOFCs. The major color type of the MPs in the TOFCs was transparent, accounting for a mean 39 (Qingdao)–73% (Hangzhou) of the total MPs. Polymer compositions of the MPs in the TOFCs were consistently dominated by polypropylene, which represented a mean 56–73% of the total MPs. The estimated daily intake of MPs for the general Chinese population through using TOFCs was in the range of 0.042–0.14 items/kg bw/day. To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive study investigating the occurrence of MPs in TOFCs from China, which contributes to a better understanding of the sources of human oral exposure to MPs.

Keywords

• microplastics
• takeout food containers
• plastic container
• polypropylene
• human intake