Landfills are the main plastic sinks and microplastics (MPs) sources in the anthropogenic terrestrial system. Understanding the dynamic process of generating MPs is a prerequisite to reducing their potential risk, which remains unexplored because of the complex stabilization process of landfills. In this study, we investigated the evolution process of MPs generated in a partitioned landfill, with well-recorded disposal ages of over 30 years. Considering the initial plastic proportions in fresh landfilled waste, the occurrence of MPs increased exponentially with the disposal age. A booming generation of MPs occurred from 71.3 ± 17.7 items/(g plastic) to 653.1 ± 191.5 items/(g plastic). The generation rates of MPs varied greatly depending on the individual polymer types, with polyethylene (PE) having the highest generation rate of 28.4 items/(g plastic) per year at 31 years, compared to that of polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) at 15.0 and 9.6 items/(g plastic) per year, respectively. The variation in the carbonyl index indicated that environmental oxidation might facilitate the fragmentation of plastic waste. The relative abundance of plastic-degrading microbes increased more than three times in the plastisphere after 30 years of landfilling, indicating that the potential biodegradation might be a nonnegligible driver for plastic fragmentation after long-term natural acclimatization. This study revealed the dynamic evolution process of MPs in landfills and predicted the booming stage, which might provide an important guideline for reducing the leakage risk of MPs during the reclamation of old landfills or dumping sites.
Keywords: Biodegradation; Dynamic evolution process; Exponential increase; Generation rate; Landfill; Microplastics distribution.
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