Abundance and characteristics of microplastic in sewage sludge: A case study of Yangling, Shaanxi province, China

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs), as a new type of pollution, could result in serious environmental pollution due to its special properties. Meanwhile, the damage of MPs to environment could be reflected by the MPs characteristics in sewage sludge, one of dominant sinks of MPs. Therefore, this study investigated the abundance and characteristics of MPs of sewage sludge derived from Yangling, Shaanxi province. Results showed that among of all detected MPs, the particle size ranged from 8 ​μm–1 ​mm, especially 8–400.00 ​μm, accounting for 97.27%. Moreover, the microplastics were dominantly in the shape of fragment in white. Additionally, 41.18% of the microplastics were identified as PVC, which led to higher risk index in Yangling. Furthermore, human density, human activities, environmental factors, and industrial types were responsible for the different details of microplastics in sewage sludge. Concluded from these results, more attention is supposed to pay on MPs pollution in Yangling zone.

Keywords

• Microplastics
• Sewage sludge
• Abundance
• Characteristics
• Yangling