The abundance and characteristics of microplastics in rainwater pipelines in Wuhan, China

Abstract

Urban rainwater runoff is considered to be an important way to transport microplastics into the freshwater. By analyzing the microplastics in rainwater pipelines in different land function areas in Hongshan District (Wuhan, China), the preliminary results of microplastics abundance and characteristics in rainwater pipelines and rainwater pipeline sediments were obtained. The microplastics abundance in water samples was 2.75 ± 0.76 to 19.04 ± 2.96 items/L, the abundance of microplastics in the sediment was 6.00 ± 1.63 to 27.33 ± 4.64 items/100 g. The highest abundance among the samples was in the business district and the lowest in the campus. The microplastics in water samples and sediment samples were mainly fragments, accounting for 44.7% and 57.1%, respectively. The proportion of particle size <1 mm was 75.0% and above. The color of microplastics was diversified, and colored particles occupied over 60.0%. The types of polymers detected were mainly polyethylene, polypropylene and polyester, which were related to the types of polymers widely used in life. This study shows that urban rainwater pipelines is one of the ways for land-based microplastics to migrate to freshwater, and the accumulation of microplastics in stormwater pipe sediments might be an important contributor to microplastics in freshwater area.