Italian pellets watch: Assessment of resin pellets distribution, characterization and pollutants absorption
Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Resin pellets are subject to massive dispersion in the environment and, once entered in the sea, they can absorb pollutants. The consistent and coherent citizen science collection protocol of our ItPW (Italian Pellets Watch) survey offers a s̈napshotöf the summer 2019 plastic waste and pollutant conditions across numerous Italian beaches. In order to examine the effectiveness of using pellets as cost-effective proxies for assessing chemical pollution in the ocean, compared to traditional standard methods such as mussels or other environmental matrices, we performed POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants; i.e, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) and Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)) and heavy metals analysis on selected subsamples of the of 2270 pellets collected from 73 beaches across 13 different Italian regions. Analysis were performed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) for POPs and using LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) for heavy metals. Correlation were investigates amongs morphological parameters (yellowing, presence of fouling and porosity) and POPs/metals concentrations. Results show significative metal and POPs contamination in pellet matrices. In addition, correlation analysis reveales a strong correlation between pellets yellowing and POPs contents and no any correlation between yellowing and metal content. The FTIR-ATR analysis highlights the presence of the bands of the C=C, C=O and O-H absorption modes which could be correlated to the yellowing parameter. Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/559495/document
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7125961385