Main Article Content
Abstract
The presence of microplastic in environment has been declared as an emerging pollutant. Mostly the reports have determined its presence in marine ecosystem. Limited studies were recorded from the freshwater environment and a very few based on land or soil. Analysing the microplastic contamination in soil will enlighten its impact on terrestrial ecosystem which was the aim of this study. Soil samples from agricultural land were collected from different depths to analyse its movement from surface to the deeper part of soil. Parallel to this study virgin and product plastic types were mixed in soil to calculate recovery rate of plastic particles by Air induced overflow method. FTIR spectroscopy and fluorescence microscope techniques were used for the identification and detection of plastic and its type. Polypropylene (PP) was reported with highest recovery rate of 42% among virgin plastic and among products high density polyethylene (HDPE) appeared to have highest recovery rate of 50%.