“Microplastics – the plastics we don’t know about”

Faculty Research Talk presented by Dr. Gerald John, Science & Technolgy

Thursday March 7, 2019
3:30—4:30PM
UNI M33

Plastics are ubiquitously present in the environment resulting from food packages, shopping bags, household items such as toothbrushes, pens and personal care products. Global annual production of plastics is about 300 million tons. Plastic debris is exponentially increasing in the environment since the first production about 75 years ago. Microplastics (MPs) are plastics that are 5 mm or smaller in diameter, and are formed by degradation of plastic wastes. There  is growing scientific evidence that microplastics are harmful to aquatic organisms. Narragansett Bay plays a vital role in the economy of the State of Rhode Island and my research will focus on assessing the load of MPs that are discharged into the bay. The presence of MPs in the bay as well as the water bodies that drain into the bay region is not well documented. While there are many sources for introduction of MPs into the water bodies, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are considered as one of the primary sources of MPs. The mass of MPs will be monitored in the influent and effluents of WWTPs. MPs that are collected from WWTPs will be further tested using various analytical methods. The results will be used to build a library and potentially be used for chemical fingerprinting purposes.