Challenges and Opportunities to Forensic Approaches in Microplastics

Analyzing Microplastics in the Environment
Oral Presentation

Prepared by K. Rousteau, S. Stout, J. Hardenstine
NewFields, 300 Ledgewood Place, Suite 205, Rockland, MA, 02370, United States


Contact Information: [email protected]; 617-879-8564

ABSTRACT

Over 300 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year. An estimated 19 million tons of plastic waste winds up in the environment where it continues to breakdown and release additives and other leachates. Studies are finding plastic particles and leachate products accumulating in humans, animals, and the environment. The need to be able to track or fingerprint plastics, much like oil, is becoming more important. Some complexities in analyzing microplastics come from the breadth of potential mixtures of different polymers and additives, in addition to their small sample size and matrix separation challenges. Plastics also adsorb other contaminants from their surrounding environment, further complicating the analysis of the plastics themselves. While the adsorption of contaminants is a complication, there are potential applications to track the spread of pollutants from highly contaminated areas using these plastic particles. Many of the micro-analysis techniques are only available in academic labs and are not easily adjusted to commercial environmental laboratory settings. Here we applied two commercially available methods to survey polymers and additives present in an ad hoc collection of plastics from everyday items around the home. Using FTIR analysis, we identified the polymer types and some additives in PVC. To further characterize polymer type (via oligomers and monomers) and any additives in the plastics, ~0.5 to 1.0 g of plastic was serially extracted with DCM, as is common in environmental matrices, and then analyzed the concentrated extract by full scan GC/MS. The goal of these initial tests is to better understand what chemical fingerprinting information can be gained from conventional, commercially available analyses as a first step toward pursuing forensic assessments of microplastics in the environment.