Disparities in Methods Used to Determine Microplastics in the Aquatic Environment: A Review of Legislation, Sampling Process and Instrumental Analysis

Abstract

Plastic particles smaller than 5 mm, i.e., microplastics, have been detected in a number of environments. The number of studies on microplastics in marine environments, fresh water, wastewater, the atmosphere, and the human body are increasing along with a rise in the amounts of plastic materials introduced into the environment every year, all contributing to a range of health and environmental issues. Although the use of primary microplastics has been gradually reduced by recent legislation in many countries, new knowledge and data on these problems are needed to understand the overall lifecycle of secondary microplastics in particular. The aim of this review is to provide unified information on the pathways of microplastics into the environment, their degradation, and related legislation, with a special focus on the methods of their sampling, determination, and instrumental analysis. To deal with the health and environmental issues associated with the abundance of microplastics in the environment, researchers should focus on agreeing on a uniform methodology to determine the gravity of the problem through obtaining comparable data, thus leading to new and stricter legislation enforcing more sustainable plastic production and recycling, and hopefully contributing to reversing the trend of high amounts of microplastics worldwide.

Quantitative analysis of microplastics in seawater based on SERS internal standard method

“…7 It can be seen that microplastics in the ocean can be spread through the food chain and nally enter the human body, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and even induce cancer. [8][9][10] At present, main detection technologies for microplastics include pyrolysis gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, [11][12][13] Fourier infrared spectroscopy, [14][15][16] and Raman spectroscopy. [17][18][19] These technologies can realize the qualitative and quantitative analysis of 1-50 mm microplastics in the environment, 20,21 but it is very difficult for these methods to detect microplastics less than 1 mm, especially in the complex marine environment, because there are pesticides, heavy metals, oil pollution, and other pollutant interference, so these methods are not suitable for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of nano-microplastics in the ocean.…”

Insights into the removal of microplastics and microfibres by Advanced Oxidation Processes

“…detection capability of equipment and devices) or sample collection strategies (e.g. cut-off in filters or nets used for sampling) (Campanale et al, 2020;Halfar et al, 2021). But also due to the influences of the treatment plant location, local consumption habits and different economic levels.…”

Optimizing the ratio of Coomassie and Methylene blue dyes for a cost-effective and rapid staining of PET, PVC, PP, PS, LLDPE, LDPE, and HDPE

“…China is the largest plastic producer in the world, reaching up to 32% of the global plastic production [2]. However, the exponential growth of plastic production has brought about major environmental concerns regarding plastic wastes [3,4], especially when they are not generally biodegradable, taking many years to decompose. With plastics leeching into soil, water, and livestock, detecting small plastic particles and even nano-scale micro-plastics has become a priority for scienti c researchers and environmentalists [5].…”