Microplastics in sediment from Skudai and Tebrau river, Malaysia: a preliminary study

Abstract

Plastic debris floating on surface water has now become an environmental issues concerning its abundance and fate. Generally, plastic debris that are fragmented into less than 5 mm in size is known as microplastics (MP). To date, discovery on the occurrence and impacts of MP in marine environments have been reported by many studies. However, less investigation has been carried out in freshwater environments. The occurrence of MP in Malaysia is also unknown. Thus, the present study has characterised the abundance of MP between Skudai and Tebrau River. The quantification of MP levels in these channels are pertinent since both rivers are listed among polluted rivers in Malaysia with high amount of rubbish. Surface sediments were collected with a box corer and MP were extracted via density separation. The inspection of particles was carried out under microscope and were categorized based on shape, colour, and size. Preliminary results showed that the concentration of MP was much higher in Tebrau than of Skudai River. The study demonstrates that the abundance of MPs in both urban rivers may possibly be affected by weathering breakdown of large plastic materials since these locations are well-known for fishing and industrial areas.

Occurrence of Microplastics in the Asian Freshwater Environments: A Review

“…Surface water of Surabaya River, Indonesia were dominated with film [49]. The same results were also obtained in Skudai and Tebrau Rivers, Malaysia [54], Pearl River, China [30] and Wei River, China [33].…”

The plastic waste problem in Malaysia: management, recycling and disposal of local and global plastic waste

“…For instance, a Google Scholar search conducted in January 2020 have only returned nine studies of microplastic pollution that have been published in Malaysia, of which two are related to freshwater systems. Of those on freshwater, one was a study of microplastic present in riverbed sediments [56] and the other an assessment of loads in a lake dwelling fish [57]. Thus, no published studies of loads carried by rivers, uptake by river organisms or risks to humans from contaminated potable water supplies or food derived from rivers (notably fish) have been conducted in Malaysia.…”

Microplastics in Malaysia's Aquatic Environment: Current Overview and Future Perspectives

“…As stated by Sarijan et al., [ 90 ] microplastic in the film shape is highly found in both Skudai and Tebrau River, Johor. Meanwhile, yellow, and white colors of microplastic were dominant in the Skudai River, and blue appears to be the dominant color found in Tebrau River.…”

“…Additionally, Sarijan et al. [ 90 ] have reported an abundance of microplastic between the Skudai and Tebrau Rivers. It is observed that the average concentrations of particles found in the Skudai and Tebrau Rivers were 0.20 and 0.68 particles m −3 , respectively that were dominated by size ranging from 1000 to 5000 µm.…”