Author(s): Ekkehard Holzbecher; Yathrib Ajaj; Jeanette Martins; Ahmed Hadidi

Linked Author(s): Ekkehard Holzbecher

Keywords: Macro-plastic; Micro-plastic; Transport in the environment; Coastal sediments

Abstract: The abundance of plastics in the environment has become a problem in all parts of the world. As a convenient product, in industry, households, packaging business, etc, plastics are produced and consumed in ever increasing amounts. Oman can be taken as an example of such a development, where plastic waste has become a visible problem in cities, villages, beaches, wadis and in the sea. Macroplastic has become an apparent visible pollution in many environmental compartments. Under given conditions (high radiation and high temperatures), macroplastics are degraded into microplastics (MP) relatively quickly, by photodegradation, mechanical abrasion, oxidation and other processes. MP becomes abundant in beaches, where it deposits in sediments from the high-tide zone. For this issue, a project started in January 2022, funded by the Research Counsel of Oman (TRC), aiming to investigate the path of plastics, from macro to MP, within and between the aqueous and terrestrial environmental compartments and to estimate the present stores and fluxes of plastic. The project includes fieldwork (sampling of water and sediments from beaches and wadis), chemical laboratory analysis, microscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, degradation studies, modeling and rise of social awareness. The migration of MP in the soil columns is investigated and simulated by computer models, in co-operation with a team at IMDEA Agua (Spain). Selected results from various on-going work studies are presented. Here the focus lies in MP, for which current results confirm that coastal sediments are a final deposit for mismanaged plastics.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/978-90-833476-1-5_iahr40wc-p0304-cd

Year: 2023