Detection and Chemical Composition of Polysynthetic Plastic Materials Along the Coastline of Zanzibar, Tanzania
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The State University of Zanzibar
Abstract
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Polysynthentic polymers (plastics) pollutants are of growing global concern due to its
detection and accumulation in diversified ecological systems. In particular, the
anthropogenic contamination through persistent forms of microplastics poses
unforeseeable risks for aquatic environments such as oceans, lakes and rivers. This study
aimed to assess the status (distribution and chemical composition) of microplastics
particles around the beach sediment in coastal systems of Zanzibar. The sample collection
was conducted between February 2016 and July 2016 along the coastline of Zanzibar
Island. The study used volume reduced sampling method for collected samples. The study
also applied both field and laboratory techniques to identify and quantify microplastic
along the Zanzibar coasts. Specifically, the study analyzed abundance, distribution (spatial
and temporal), size, shape, colour and chemical composition. The microplastics were
extracted from sediment by density separation, morphology of micro particles categorized
through visual inspection under stereoscopic and dissecting microscope. The identification
was done by Fourier-Transform Infrared-Spectroscopy (4500 Series Portable FTIR).
Automatic surface chemical mapping and reference to an infrared library data base was
used to identify the compositional spectra of plastics particles.
Results of this study revealed that microplastics were widely distributed along the coasts
with a total abundance composed of 34.36±4.6 particles/kg. Higher concentrations founded
in West region during the wet season. A total of nine polymer types were identified from
the sediments i.e polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyester (PES),
polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene(PS), polyethylene(PE), acrylnitrile butadiene-styrene (ABS), low density polyethylene (LDPE) and cellulose. The mostabundant (>50%) found polysynthetic materials were polypropylene and polyvinylchloride
whilst the dominant (~53.8%) size range was between 1 - 5mm. The possible main sources
of the identified polymers were from thermoplastic products like fishing gears, plastic
bottles, food containers, textiles, pipes, bags, and cigarette butt.
The results provide current status and baseline data of polysynthetic polymers in marine
and coastal environments of Zanzibar, which support management strategies of plastics
debris in the ecosystems and allied resources.
Keywords
Current status and chemical composition of microplastics particles around the beach sediment in coastal area of Zanzibar, Amount of microplastics in intertidal sandy beaches environments.