IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i15p12057-d1211882.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigation on Microplastics in Soil near Landfills in the Republic of Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Won-Kyu Kim

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 119 Academy-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of Korea)

  • Hanbai Park

    (Korea Microplastic Research Center Co., Ltd., 2nd Floor, 88, Daejeo-Ro 299 St., Busan 46702, Republic of Korea)

  • Kazuei Ishii

    (Laboratory of Sustainable Material Cycle Systems, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Kita 13, Nishi 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8628, Hokkaido, Japan)

  • Geun-Yong Ham

    (Laboratory of Sustainable Material Cycle Systems, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Kita 13, Nishi 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8628, Hokkaido, Japan)

Abstract

Microplastics can cause physical, chemical, biological, and structural problems in soil. In this study, microplastics were identified in the soil near two landfills where contamination by microplastics was expected. Pretreatment was performed to remove organic matter and to separate microplastics from the soil samples. FT-IR microscope analysis was performed to confirm the quantity and types of microplastics. The colors and shapes of microplastics in the soil were analyzed using a digital microscope. Averages of 73.4 MPs(ea)/kg and 97.8 MPs(ea)/kg of microplastics were identified in the soil at the two landfills. The main shapes of microplastics were fragments, fibers, and films, and it was confirmed that secondary plastics were found at a high rate. The major plastic types were identified as PP and PE, ranging from 62.5 to 65.3% in proportion, followed by PET, PS, nylon, PMMA, and PVC. As for the colors of microplastics, black had the highest percentage, while other microplastics were identified as being white, blue, transparent, gray, green, red, and yellow. These results can be taken as important data indicating that microplastics in the soil around landfills can be affected by landfill waste.

Suggested Citation

  • Won-Kyu Kim & Hanbai Park & Kazuei Ishii & Geun-Yong Ham, 2023. "Investigation on Microplastics in Soil near Landfills in the Republic of Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-14, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:12057-:d:1211882
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/12057/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/12057/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Natalia Milojevic & Agnieszka Cydzik-Kwiatkowska, 2021. "Agricultural Use of Sewage Sludge as a Threat of Microplastic (MP) Spread in the Environment and the Role of Governance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Sunusi Usman & Ahmad Faizal Abdull Razis & Khozirah Shaari & Mohammad Noor Azmai Amal & Mohd Zamri Saad & Nurulfiza Mat Isa & Muhammad Farhan Nazarudin & Syaizwan Zahmir Zulkifli & Jumria Sutra & Musa, 2020. "Microplastics Pollution as an Invisible Potential Threat to Food Safety and Security, Policy Challenges and the Way Forward," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-24, December.
    3. Santiago Soliveres & Fons van der Plas & Peter Manning & Daniel Prati & Martin M. Gossner & Swen C. Renner & Fabian Alt & Hartmut Arndt & Vanessa Baumgartner & Julia Binkenstein & Klaus Birkhofer & St, 2016. "Biodiversity at multiple trophic levels is needed for ecosystem multifunctionality," Nature, Nature, vol. 536(7617), pages 456-459, August.
    4. Daniela Thomas & Berit Schütze & Wiebke Mareile Heinze & Zacharias Steinmetz, 2020. "Sample Preparation Techniques for the Analysis of Microplastics in Soil—A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-28, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sunusi Usman & Ahmad Faizal Abdull Razis & Khozirah Shaari & Mohammad Noor Amal Azmai & Mohd Zamri Saad & Nurulfiza Mat Isa & Muhammad Farhan Nazarudin, 2022. "The Burden of Microplastics Pollution and Contending Policies and Regulations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Chunming Li & Jianshe Chen & Xiaolin Liao & Aaron P. Ramus & Christine Angelini & Lingli Liu & Brian R. Silliman & Mark D. Bertness & Qiang He, 2023. "Shorebirds-driven trophic cascade helps restore coastal wetland multifunctionality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Zhengkun Hu & Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo & Nicolas Fanin & Xiaoyun Chen & Yan Zhou & Guozhen Du & Feng Hu & Lin Jiang & Shuijin Hu & Manqiang Liu, 2024. "Nutrient-induced acidification modulates soil biodiversity-function relationships," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Friedrich Scherzinger & Martin Schädler & Thomas Reitz & Rui Yin & Harald Auge & Ines Merbach & Christiane Roscher & W Stanley Harpole & Evgenia Blagodatskaya & Julia Siebert & Marcel Ciobanu & Fabian, 2024. "Sustainable land management enhances ecological and economic multifunctionality under ambient and future climate," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Vishwajeet & Halina Pawlak-Kruczek & Marcin Baranowski & Michał Czerep & Artur Chorążyczewski & Krystian Krochmalny & Michał Ostrycharczyk & Paweł Ziółkowski & Paweł Madejski & Tadeusz Mączka & Amit A, 2022. "Entrained Flow Plasma Gasification of Sewage Sludge–Proof-of-Concept and Fate of Inorganics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Sandra Hervías-Parejo & Mar Cuevas-Blanco & Lucas Lacasa & Anna Traveset & Isabel Donoso & Ruben Heleno & Manuel Nogales & Susana Rodríguez-Echeverría & Carlos J. Melián & Victor M. Eguíluz, 2024. "On the structure of species-function participation in multilayer ecological networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    7. Cocco, Valentin & Kervinio, Yann & Mouysset, Lauriane, 2023. "Relaxing the production-conservation trade-off: Biodiversity spillover in the bioeconomic performance of ecological networks," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    8. Carmen Rubio-Armendáriz & Samuel Alejandro-Vega & Soraya Paz-Montelongo & Ángel J. Gutiérrez-Fernández & Conrado J. Carrascosa-Iruzubieta & Arturo Hardisson-de la Torre, 2022. "Microplastics as Emerging Food Contaminants: A Challenge for Food Safety," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-14, January.
    9. Qinghua Zhao & Paul J. Brink & Chi Xu & Shaopeng Wang & Adam T. Clark & Canan Karakoç & George Sugihara & Claire E. Widdicombe & Angus Atkinson & Shin-ichiro S. Matsuzaki & Ryuichiro Shinohara & Shuiq, 2023. "Relationships of temperature and biodiversity with stability of natural aquatic food webs," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    10. Sunny Dhiman & Chhavi Sharma & Anu Kumar & Puneet Pathak & Shiv Dutt Purohit, 2023. "Microplastics in Aquatic and Food Ecosystems: Remediation Coupled with Circular Economy Solutions to Create Resource from Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-26, September.
    11. Sulakshana Bhatt & Chunlei Fan & Ming Liu & Brittany Wolfe-Bryant, 2023. "Effect of High-Density Polyethylene Microplastics on the Survival and Development of Eastern Oyster ( Crassostrea virginica ) Larvae," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-12, June.
    12. Swen C. Renner & Willem van Hoesel, 2017. "Ecological and Functional Traits in 99 Bird Species over a Large-Scale Gradient in Germany," Data, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-13, March.
    13. Minna Zhang & Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo & Guangyin Li & Forest Isbell & Yue Wang & Yann Hautier & Yao Wang & Yingli Xiao & Jinting Cai & Xiaobin Pan & Ling Wang, 2023. "Experimental impacts of grazing on grassland biodiversity and function are explained by aridity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    14. Hongguang Yang & Zhichao Hu & Feng Wu & Kai Guo & Fengwei Gu & Mingzhu Cao, 2023. "The Use and Recycling of Agricultural Plastic Mulch in China: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-24, October.
    15. Adam Krajewski & Agnieszka Hejduk & Leszek Hejduk, 2022. "First Evidence of Microplastic Presence in Bed Load Sediments of a Small Urban Stream in Warsaw," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-13, November.
    16. Rashid Nazir & Jawad Ali & Ijaz Rasul & Emilie Widemann & Sarfraz Shafiq, 2021. "Eco-Environmental Aspects of COVID-19 Pandemic and Potential Control Strategies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-16, March.
    17. Sunusi Usman & Ahmad Faizal Abdull Razis & Khozirah Shaari & Mohammad Noor Azmai Amal & Mohd Zamri Saad & Nurulfiza Mat Isa & Muhammad Farhan Nazarudin, 2021. "Polystyrene Microplastics Exposure: An Insight into Multiple Organ Histological Alterations, Oxidative Stress and Neurotoxicity in Javanese Medaka Fish ( Oryzias javanicus Bleeker, 1854)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-13, September.
    18. Yang, Yiling & Xiong, Kangning & Xiao, Jie, 2024. "A review of agroforestry biodiversity-driven provision of ecosystem services and implications for karst desertification control," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Juan A. Conesa & Nuria Ortuño, 2022. "Reuse of Water Contaminated by Microplastics, the Effectiveness of Filtration Processes: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, March.
    20. de la Riva, Enrique G. & Ulrich, Werner & Batáry, Péter & Baudry, Julia & Beaumelle, Léa & Bucher, Roman & Čerevková, Andrea & Felipe-Lucia, María R. & Gallé, Róbert & Kesse-Guyot, Emmanuelle & Rembia, 2023. "From functional diversity to human well-being: A conceptual framework for agroecosystem sustainability," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:12057-:d:1211882. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.