State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; Research Centre for the Oceans and Human Health, The City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Research Institute, Shenzhen, China.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2020 Nov;160:111535. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111535. Epub 2020 Aug 14.
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in coastal region play a primary role in transferring microplastics into the marine environment. Wastewater is closely related to anthropogenic activities, thus the intra-day variation of abundance of microplastics in the influent should be large and could have significant impact on their estimation of the daily mass load. In this study, a 2-hour interval sampling campaign was conducted at a secondary WWTP in Hong Kong to investigate the intra-day variations and daily loads of microplastics in influent. Results show that the average microplastic abundances increased from 7.1 ± 6.0 to 12.8 ± 5.8 particles/L over time, with predominant particle sizes ranging 1-5 mm. Approximately 80% of the microplastics in samples collected from 9:30-15:00 were polyethylene and polyester, while most samples collected at 17:00 were polypropylene and polyurethane. Microplastic loads exhibited large intra-day variations ranging 6.60 × 10-1.16 × 10 particles/day, indicating that calculated daily microplastic loads based on a specific sampling period may inaccurately estimate the actual daily load.
沿海地区的污水处理厂（WWTP）在将微塑料转移到海洋环境中起着主要作用。废水与人为活动密切相关，因此废水中微塑料丰度的日内变化应该很大，并可能对其每日质量负荷的估计产生重大影响。在这项研究中，在香港的一个二级 WWTP 进行了两小时间隔采样活动，以调查进水口微塑料的日内变化和日负荷。结果表明，微塑料丰度的平均值从 7.1±6.0 个/升增加到 12.8±5.8 个/升，主要粒径范围为 1-5 毫米。收集自 9:30-15:00 的样本中约 80%的微塑料为聚乙烯和聚酯，而 17:00 收集的大多数样本为聚丙烯和聚氨酯。微塑料负荷表现出很大的日内变化范围为 6.60×10-1.16×10 个/天，这表明基于特定采样期计算的每日微塑料负荷可能无法准确估计实际的每日负荷。
