Microplastics In Products Research Articles

Microplastics in personal care products and cosmetics in Sri Lanka

In the Sri Lankan context, the lack of baseline studies to mitigate microplastic emissions through personal care and cosmetic products poses a huge problem. Hence this study serves as the first scientific investigation to analyze and characterize microplastics in selected personal care and cosmetic items available in the Sri Lankan markets. Fifteen brands representing five categories (face wash, facial scrubs, baby creams, shaving creams, and skin creams) of personal care and cosmetic items served as the basis for this investigation. Based on a questionnaire survey, from each category, three highly utilized brands were chosen and triplicates from each brand were used for the analysis. All samples were treated with the Fenton reagent to extract microplastics. Then through Nile red staining suspected microplastic were screened and characterized through FT-IR spectroscopy. The Nile Red analysis revealed seven brands of the fifteen to be stained with Nile Red and demonstrate luminance properties under UV light. However, FT-IR analysis proved only six brands contained actual microplastics. Low-density polyethylene and ethylene-propylene copolymer were the dominant types of microplastic. Most microplastics were irregularly shaped and white in color with sizes ranging from 238.55 ± 50.74 to 450.69 ± 174.9 μm. An emission estimation revealed that products FS-01 and FW-03 contain 3.36 ± 0.20 g and 0.2 ± 0.05 g of isolatable microplastics per product. While the present study provides scientific evidence for the availability of microplastics in products in Sri Lankan markets, it also provides a great opportunity to develop relevant policies and regulations to control them.

PLASTIC WASTE AND DIFFICULTIES IN MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM

The paper has applied a number of traditional research methods to preliminarily assess plastic pollution and some difficulties in plastic waste management in Vietnam. Research results showed that plastic waste in Vietnam arises from many different sources; The total amount of plastic waste in Vietnam is 3.27 million tons/year, accounting for about 8-12% of household solid waste and about 5% of medical waste; The treatment and recycling of plastic waste is still limited, up to 90% of plastic waste is burned, buried or discharged into the environment, only about 10% of plastic waste is recycled. Although the system of legal documents on waste management is increasingly being improved, there are still many difficulties and inadequacies: there are no in-depth studies and legal regulations, standards and regulations. techniques for controlling microplastics in products and goods such as cosmetics, detergents... as well as in wastewater treatment; There are no specific legal regulations on microplastic waste management, reducing waste from single-use plastic products; Plastic waste recycling has not been officially implemented, it is still mainly carried out by private units; The application of environmental protection tax on plastic bags and the EPR mechanism still have many problems and shortcomings.To improve management efficiency, it is necessary to apply a combination of solutions from raising public awareness, completing legal documents and properly managing production sources and disposal of waste containing plastic and microplastic.