Emerging investigator series: open dumping and burning: an overlooked source of terrestrial microplastics in underserved communities

Abstract

soil) equals or exceeds reported concentrations from currently understood sources of MPs including biosolids application and other agricultural practices. Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transformed infrared (ATR-FTIR) identified polyethylene as the dominant polymer across all sites (46.2-84.8%). We also detected rayon (≤11.5%), polystyrene (up to 11.5%), polyethylene terephthalate (≤5.1), polyvinyl chloride (≤4.4%), polyester (≤3.1), and acrylic (≤2.2%). Burned MPs accounted for 76.3 to 96.9% of the MPs found in both community wide dumping sites. These results indicate that solid waste dumping and burning activities are a major source of thermally oxidized MPs for the surrounding terrestrial environment with potential to negatively affect underserved communities.