EXTRACTION, CHARACTERIZATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF MICROPLASTICS FROM LANDFILL SOIL (Article)

Abstract

Recently, landfills have become the major sink of all the microplastic waste and hazardous materials that adhere to their surfaces. Hence, it is of utmost importance to detect and estimate the presence of microplastics in landfills to ascertain the fate and impact of these pollutants on the terrestrial environment. Therefore, in this study, the soil samples were collected from seven points of landfills from three layers, extracted using a standard protocol, examined under a stereomicroscope and identified using ATR-FTIR analysis. The abundance of microplastic was high in layer 1 with 64%. Fragments and fibers were abundant in all three layers. The microplastic of size range 0-1 mm were predominantly found in all the layers. Colours, such as white, transparent and blue, were abundant. In addition, the physico-chemical parameters of the site were also studied.