Microplastics in wastewater outlets of Bandar Abbas city (Iran): A potential point source of microplastics into the Persian Gulf

Abolfazl Naji; Sharifeh Azadkhah; Hadi Farahani; Saif Uddin; Farhan R Khan

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128039

Microplastics in wastewater outlets of Bandar Abbas city (Iran): A potential point source of microplastics into the Persian Gulf

Chemosphere. 2021 Jan:262:128039. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128039. Epub 2020 Aug 23.

Authors

Abolfazl Naji¹, Sharifeh Azadkhah², Hadi Farahani³, Saif Uddin⁴, Farhan R Khan⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Marine Science and Technology, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran. Electronic address: abolfazlnaji@gmail.com.
² Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Marine Science and Technology, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
³ Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Environment and Life Sciences Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait.
⁵ Blindern Research Group, Rasmus Winderens Vei 4, NO-0373, Oslo, Norway.

PMID: 33182145
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128039

Abstract

Wastewater discharge is considered to be a significant point source of microplastic (MPs) release into the marine environment. This study is the first attempt to quantify MPs released from the wastewater outfall from Bandar Abbas City into the Persian Gulf. Two wastewater discharge stations at Gursuzan and Suru were sampled. MPs were isolated by an oxidative procedure and subsequent density separation using ZnCl₂ solution. The average MP concentration in wastewater and sludge were 70.66 (±14.12, SD) MP.35 L^-1 and 6070 (±807.25) MPs.kg^-1, respectively at Confidence Level (CL) (95.0%). The most commonly recovered polymers were polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) in all size classes. Our findings provides a baseline of MP concentration in wastewater streams and slurry that is discharged from the Bandar Abbas wastewater treatment facility into the Persian Gulf. This highlights the need to undertake more studies at water treatment plants in the region for a realistic assessment of MP discharge into the Persian Gulf.

Keywords: Effluent discharge; Microplastic; Persian Gulf; Plastic pollution; Wastewater treat plants (WWTP).

MeSH terms

Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Indian Ocean
Iran
Microplastics / analysis*
Polyethylene / analysis
Polypropylenes / analysis
Sewage / chemistry*
Wastewater / chemistry*
Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*

Substances

Microplastics
Polypropylenes
Sewage
Waste Water
Water Pollutants, Chemical
Polyethylene