Jaafarzadeh Nematollah, Reshadatian Neda, Feyzi Kamareh Touran, Sabaghan Mohamad, Feizi Rozhan, Jorfi Sahand
Environmental Technologies Research Center, Medical Basic Sciences Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
Research Assistant, Department of Plant Science, Fresno State University, Fresno, USA.
Sci Rep. 2024 Dec 30;14(1):31645. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-80611-y.
Microplastic is one of the most important environmental challenges of recent decades. Although the abundance of microplastics in water sources and water bodies such as the marine were investigated in many studies, knowing the sources of microplastics requires more studies. In this study, litter was investigated as one of the challenges of urban management and the sources of primary microplastic and secondary microplastic in the urban environment. For this purpose, Clean Environment Index and Cigarette Butt Pollution Index, were used to interpret the density of litter and estimate the abundance of microplastic resources in Khuzestan province, Iran. The results showed that the density of litter in the studied cities was 0.0001-0.6502 items/m. The calculated clean environment index and cigarette butt pollution index were 0.211-35.05 and 0.112-12.897, respectively. The density of primary microplastic and secondary microplastic sources in the studied cities was 47,207-62,767 µg/m (average = 52782) and 2127-3140 µg/m (average = 2570), respectively. The abundance of primary microplastic due to littering in the studied cities was estimated at 150 g/year. Reducing the ratio of littering waste in the urban environment and increasing the efficiency of the urban cleaning service is necessary to manage the most dispersed source of microplastics in the urban environment.
微塑料是近几十年来最重要的环境挑战之一。尽管许多研究调查了水源和水体（如海洋）中微塑料的丰度，但了解微塑料的来源还需要更多研究。在本研究中，垃圾被视为城市管理的挑战之一以及城市环境中初级微塑料和次级微塑料的来源。为此，利用清洁环境指数和烟头污染指数来解释垃圾密度，并估算伊朗胡齐斯坦省微塑料资源的丰度。结果表明，所研究城市的垃圾密度为0.0001 - 0.6502件/米。计算得出的清洁环境指数和烟头污染指数分别为0.211 - 35.05和0.112 - 12.897。所研究城市中初级微塑料和次级微塑料源的密度分别为47207 - 62767微克/米（平均 = 52782）和2127 - 3140微克/米（平均 = 2570）。所研究城市中因乱扔垃圾产生的初级微塑料丰度估计为每年150克。为了管理城市环境中最分散的微塑料来源，有必要降低城市环境中乱扔垃圾的比例，并提高城市清洁服务的效率。
