Abstract
Metal concentrations have been quantified in plastic pieces collected from four beaches located in the Mediterranean coast of Spain with different characteristics (i.e. anthropogenic pressures). Several sections of the beach were sampled (i.e. coastline, middle beach and upper dunes). After an acidic extraction, metal(oid)s levels in the samples were measured for by ICP-MS. In addition to the metal content, plastics have been classified according to their characteristics such as polymer type, color or state of degradation. These characteristics have shown to influence the adsorption capacity of metal(oid)s by plastics. Some preliminary results have shown that aged and dark colored plastics accumulate higher metal(oid)s levels probably associated to plastic surface modification. The most anthropized beaches (i.e. mining or industry) showed, in general, higher levels of metal(oid)s such as Fe, Pb and Zn. This work shows that metal content in plastics can give an idea about the pollution degree of the area where these plastic pieces have been collected. Therefore, this study is a contribution to the potential use of plastics as pollution monitors.
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Patrício Rodrigues, J., Rivera-Hernández, J.R., Bernárdez, P., Rocha-Santos, T., Costa Duarte, A., Santos-Echeandía, J. (2023). Plastic Litter in SE Spain Beaches: Characterization and Metal Content. In: Cocca, M., Ambrogi, V., Avolio, R., Castaldo, R., Errico, M.E., Gentile, G. (eds) Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Microplastic Pollution in the Mediterranean Sea. ICMPMS 2022. Springer Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34455-8_12
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