Microplastic occurrence in urban and suburban soils of Bor, Eastern Serbia

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) are a newly acknowledged, pervasive pollutants found even in distant Earth areas and represent a matter of global concern. This study inspects, for the first time, microplastic content in terrestrial environments in the city of Bor, known as one of the most polluted industrial cities in Serbia. Soils from the park in the II kilometer and the periphery of the Bor (Brezonik settlement) were collected and analyzed. Plastic particle extraction from the soil matrix was performed using the flotation method based on density separation. MP content differed significantly between the two sites. Urban soil contained around 3800 items kg-1 , while suburban held 600 particles per kilogram. The outstandingly high difference likely originates from the distinction in the anthropogenic activity levels of the two localities. There was no notable difference in appearance. All extracted items were white to transparent fragments. The morphological shape of plastic particles indicated defragmentation as a governing origin source. Future investigations should be concentrated on the MPs' correlation with other contaminants, namely heavy metals, and the eventual recognition of MP`s role as the metal pollution vector in the investigated area