Abstract
Soils of parks and recreational areas are potential sinks of microplastics because they are under multifunctional use. The aims of this research were to quantify and determine the types and abundance of light-density microplastics in one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world: Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Therefore, potential differences between the city districts were explored through the assessment of light-density microplastics’ concentrations in soils together with the soil properties. Microplastics were extracted from 74 soil samples. Predictions of microplastic concentrations and soil characteristics were made for the entire city by using ordinary kriging; 97% of the samples contained microplastic particles (MPPs), and on average, there were 4825.31 ± 6513.85 MPP/kg soil. A total of 21 hotspot samples were identified, and all of them contained LDPE, which represented 40.82% of the plastic types, in addition to 35.06% PAC and 15.58% natural polyamide. Other types of plastics were PP (0.19%), PS (1.30%), bioplastic (0.19%), PA (0.37%), PU (0.56), PVC (0.19%), and unidentified plastics (0.19%). There were no significant differences in MPP concentration between city districts. Our results showed that MPPs are abundant in urban soils, which represents a high risk for soil life. Further studies are required for identifying the sources of this pollution.
Highlights
It is predicted that the current worldwide production of plastic will double in the coming 20 years, extending the post-consumer waste [1]
Microplastic particles were found in 97% of the analysed samples
It can be concluded that microplastic particles are abundant in the soils of Amsterdam
Summary
It is predicted that the current worldwide production of plastic will double in the coming 20 years, extending the post-consumer waste [1]. Research on microplastic pollution in an urban environment has been lacking [7] This is remarkable, since cities can contain plastic debris in their soil itself, and they be a source for plastic debris outside the urban areas [6,8]. Studies have shown that microplastic pollution is related to its degradation rate, which is generally slow or does not even occur [4,11]. These particles can be transported through the soil both horizontally and vertically through anthropogenic activities or naturally by either leaching or earthworms [4,12].
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