2. Content
• Introduction, Background
• Properties of microplastic, Types of microplastic
• Chemical related to microplastic, Behaviour of microplastic particle in water
• Sources of microplastic
• Effects of microplastic
• Control measures
• Conclusion
4. Introduction
• The small plastic fragments disposed in the marine habitat having dimensions ≤ 5
mm are defined as microplastics2.
• These tiny plastics can be consumed by different marine biota including corals,
planktons, marine invertebrates, fish and whales and are ultimately transferred
along the food chain3.
• These plastic polymers directly pose a great threat to marine organisms and also
indirectly affect the ecosystem by adsorbing other marine pollutants.
5. Background
• In the past six decades, we have produced more than 8.4 billion tons of plastics.
Most of it has now ended up in a landfills or directly in our natural environment.
• Only 9% of the plastic used today is recycled.
• Up to 12 million tons of plastic enter our oceans every year.
• Plastic waste on the streets can also get into the ocean via drainage networks or
rivers.
6. Synthetic Materials
• Synthetic materials (polymers, microplastics or plastics) are one of the causes of
our global environmental pollution.
• Microplastics were first detected in large numbers in the world’s oceans in 2004.
• Microplastics is a young research area with many unknowns. Science, industry,
and politics are facing enormous challenges in order to grasp the phenomenon in
all its complexity and to find effective solutions against the further spread of
microplastics.
7. Marine Pollution
• Marine pollution by plastic litter has been a major global environmental issue in
recent decades, and global concern over the problems resulting from end-of-life
plastic have grown rapidly since the presence of microscopic plastic particles in
the ocean
• Small fragments of plastic litter in the environment present different challenges to
larger items, which has been widely documented since the 1960s.
8. Continued...
• Smaller plastics become more bioavailable (or ingestible) particularly to small
organisms.
• Because of their size detecting the presence of microplastics and adverse
biological effects, if toxicants comes considerably more challenging.
• Microplastics have been observed on the shore, sea surface, and seabed from the
coast to the open ocean, including the arctic.
9. Properties of Microplastics
Microplastics consist
of carbon and hydrogen atoms bound
together in polymer chains. Other
chemicals, such as
phthalates, polybrominated diphenyl
ethers (PBDES), and tetrabromobi
sphenol A (TBBPA), are typically also
present in microplastics, and many of
these chemical additives leach out of the
plastics after entering the environment.
10. Primary Microplastics Type A
• Primary microplastics type A categorizes and regards microplastics as a
chemical. This category includes the types that are added directly to products
(e.g. Personal care products, cleaning agents, paints, etc.). This proportion is
already often replaced by water-soluble polymers ("liquid microplastics").
Products are then often "advertised" with the addition "free of microplastics" or
"without microplastics".
11. Secondary microplastics
• Secondary microplastics include all
microplastic particles that are formed
in the environment as a result of the
slow decay of large plastic parts. This
can happen through all kinds of
external influences, e.G. Through the
influence of UV rays, bacteria or
friction.
12. Phthalates
• Used to make plastic less brittle.
• Often found in cosmetics, packaging, cases for consumer electronics
• Not tightly bound within the plastic molecules
• Linked to birth defects, reduced fertility, and brain disorders in children
13. BPA
• Makes plastic tough.
• Allows plastic to be used to make food containers, sports equipment, and DVDs
• Used to line food and beverage cans to keep them from corroding
• Most susceptible to its effects are children and women of child-bearing age
14. Dioxins
• Dioxins are a family of chemicals that stay in the body for years.
• The toxicity of dioxins varies widely; some types are poisonous.
• High exposures result in skin and liver disease, but such exposure levels are rare.
• Dioxins are known to cause cancer but at what dosage is unknown
15. Other Chemicals
• Over time some plastics will leach out lead, cadmium and other heavy metals
• Some chemicals left in plastic from manufacturing are especially poisonous to
marine life, like copper chloride or methanol.
• Pbdes are flame retardants and were added to children’s sleepwear, furniture,
and other products.
• widespread in the environment; studies have linked pbdes to a reduction in IQ in
children
16. Behavior of Microplastics in Water
Physical behavior
• Migration
• Sedimentation
Chemical behaviors
• Degradation
• Adsorption
Bio behaviors
• Ingestion
• Translocation
17. Sources of Microplastic
• The presence of these hazardous plastic fragments in the ecosystem ( due to
terrestrial and aquatic) is due to different arthopegenic activities which
include domestic , industrial activities
• The introduction of microplastics in the aquatic ecosystem is mainly because
of the domestic runoff which contain microbeads and microplastic fragments
(used in cosmetic and other consumer products) and also from the
fragmentation of the large plastic trash.
18. Continued...
• The plastic manufacturing industries release plastics in the form of pellets and
resin powders produced from air-blasting which ultimately contaminate the
aquatic environment.
• Also the coastal activities which include fishing practices, aqua tourism activities
and marine industries are the sources of microplastic pollution in the marine
ecosystem.
19. Continued...
• Microplastics once entered in the marine habitat are exposed to different physic-
chemical processes such as biofouling and leaching or incorporation of secondary
pollutants.
• Microplastics have different shapes, size and density, and according to these
features, plastic fragments have distributed in different compartments of the
marine ecosystem (finally settle down to benthos) and are available for the marine
biota
20. Continued...
• The pelagic marine biota which consists of planktons and crustaceans are
exposed to low density microplastics whereas benthic organisms such as
polychaete and tubifex worms, amphipods and mollusks are known to encounter
with dense microplastics.
• Thee settling rate of microplastics through the water column varies depending on
different factors such as polymer type, biofouling and surface chemistry of the
particles.
21. Effects of Microplastic
• Interaction with marine biota
• Microplastic in fish
• Microplastics in another marine biota
• Microplastics in sea salt
22. Interaction With Marine Biota
• As the abundance of microplastics increases
• Its bioavailability to marine organisms also increases the color, density, shape,
size, charge and aggregation
• Abundance of these tiny plastic particles affect their potential bioavailability to
marine organisms
• Biological interactions of microplastics with marine biota are key to understanding
the movement
• Microplastics contain organic pollutants
23. Continued…
• The ingestion of microplastic particles by marine biota have increased
• The ingestion of microplastic particles has been observed in oceanic regions
globally in a wide range of marine organisms
• Absorbed from seawater thereby serving as scavengers and transporters of organic
contaminants
• Adsorption is both a physical and chemical behavior.
• Physical adsorption is dependent on the great specific surface area and van der
waals' force
24. Microplastic in Fish
• The presence of chemicals in fish tissues which are the same chemicals that form
plastics
• The ingested and accumulated microplastic particles which ranged in size from 1
to 20 μm, in high concentrations
• Being carried out to demonstrate the impacts of microplastics on marine biota.
• The transfer of microplastics and potentially harmful substances between different
trophic levels in the marine environment.
25. Microplastics in Another Marine Biota
• The issue of microplastic ingestion is not restricted to fish alone; zooplankton and
sea turtles are also susceptible to microplastics
• The organisms were subjected to low and high doses of biodegradable and
conventional microplastics for 60 days
• Outdoor mesocosm studies were carried out on the effect of microplastics on the
health
• Microplastic ingestions were 1 particle per every 34 copepods and 1 particle per
every 17 euphausiids
Example
• An example is the salmon fish of the northwest coast of north america which has
been reported to feed heavily on euphausiids and copepods.
26. Microplastics In Sea Salt
• Abiotic sea products are a source of food for humans
• The presence of microplastics in sea salt has recently been proven
• That detected 7–204 particles kg−1, 550–681 particles kg−1 and 43– 364 particles
kg−1 of microplastics in 15 brands of rock/well salts, sea salt, and lake salt,
respectively.
• The microplastics found were polyethylene, cellophane, and polyethylene
terephthalate.
• This demonstrates that along with fish and shellfish
27. Removing Plastic Microbeads From Personal Care
Products
• In 2015, the US government introduced the microbeads free waters act
(2015) banning the sale of personal care products containing plastic
microbeads, effective on 2017.
• Other regions including canada, australia, and several european countries
are encouraging phase outs or bans of plastic microbeads.
• More countries are likely to adopt similar bans thereby eliminating a major
source of microplastics.
28. Use Of Biodegradable Materials
• Biodegradable/biocompatible plastics such as polylactatide (PLA),
polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and others are commercially available and
can replace traditional plastics for many applications.
• An example would be manufacture of microbeads made from pha and pla.
29. Improved Reuse, Recycle And Recovery Of Plastics
• Improved solid waste infrastructure and management will decrease plastic debris
entering rivers and the ocean
• decrease the rate of microplastics accumulation
• Multiple uses of plastic products can also significantly reduce plastic wastes and
decrease formation of microplastics
• Recycling of used plastics is an effective approach
• The use waste plastic as energy source and recovery of waste plastics as synthetic
crude and valuable products will also reduce sources of microplastics.
30. Improved Separation Efficiency At WWTP
• Existing wastewater treatment facility should be upgraded to remove microplastics
efficiently to prevent microplastics from entering surface waters, such as rivers
and ocean.
• Modification of filters within washing machines would be one simple and
effective way of preventing microplastics fibers from entering sewer.
31. Development Of And Bioremediation Technologies
• The microbial biodegradation of petroleum based plastics, especially polyethylene
(PE), polypropylene ( PP ) polystyrene ( PS) ,has been evaluated since the 1970s.
• Several fungi biodegrade pur, pe, pp and ps are generally considered non-
biodegradable without heat or uv pretreatment and can thus persist in natural
environments for hundreds of years. However, recent research indicates a potential
for biodegradation of PE, PS and PET.
• Bacterial strains of bacillus and enterobacter asburiae degrading pe and
exiguobacterium degrading ps were isolated from the guts of pest insect larvae of
plodia interpunctella (waxworms or indian moth) and tenebrio molitor
(mealworms) respectively
32. Continued...
• Ps foam is completely mineralized in mealworms’ gut within 12–24 hours
• International collaboration is needed to clean up plastic debris on the ocean and
to reduce the major source of ocean microplastics.
• Recent research offers reason for hope. Future research should assess whether
microbial genes involved in plastics degradation have begun to spread in the
environment.
• Research is also needed to develop strategies for in biodegradation of
microplastics by addition of microorganisms or by enhanced natural decrease
using native microflora.
33.
34. Conclusion
• Plastic pollution in the marine ecosystem is
an issue of concern nowadays.
• Its deleterious effects on marine biota.
• Due to the size of micro plastics, their
bioaccumulation potential is very high.
• Primary micro plastics are globally a major
source of plastics into the oceans.
• It’s size between 0.8 and 2.5.
35. Continued…
• The best solution is to stop producing it further and find out the alternative of
plastic products.
• Reduce your use of single-use plastics
• Recycle properly
• Participate in (or organize) a beach or river cleanup
