Microplastic research in the Republic of Korea

Microplastic research in the Republic of Korea

Joint NOWPAP-TEMM Workshop on Marine Litter Management Toyama, Japan

2017.9.19

Sang Hee Honga,b*, Won Joon Shima,b

aOil and POPs Research Group, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology bDepartment of Marine Environmental Sciences, Korea University of Science

2

Paradigm Shift : fate and effect of marine debris

Mega Macro Meso Micro Nano

Hippo Dog Ant Dust mite Virus

Increasing …

Numbers Bioavailability Target organisms Toxicity Detection difficulty Cleanup difficulty

Decreasing …

Volume Entanglement Settling velocity

3

Why microplastics? Increasing trend

(Thompson et al., 2004, Science; Classens et al., 2011, MPB) Ubiquitous from coast to Arctic

(Browne et al., 2011, ES&T; Hidalgo-Ruz et al., 2012)

Ingestion by small organisms (Boerger et al., 2010, MPB; Davison and Asch, 2011, MEPS)

Toxicity of microplastics (Browne et al., 2008, ES&T; Lee et al., 2013, ES&T)

Transporting media of pollutants (Tueten et al., 2009, Phil. Trans R. Soc.)

Nanoplastics by weathering (Shim et al., 2014, SETAC)

Input source and pathway?

Toxicity?

Chemicals?

4

Need to fill the knowledge gap

Growing need to conduct scientific research and monitoring

Is marine debris (microplastics) a ‘serious problem’ or a ‘red herring’?

Research project: Assessment of environmental risk of microplastics in the marine environment (2015-2020)

5

What are the exposure levels in the environment?

What are the effects at different exposure levels?

What are potential environmental effects of microplastics?

What are the ecological risk of microplastics?

Microplastics

Targets for the assessment

6

Microplastics

Chemical Cocktails

Associated Chemicals +

Main research content

7

Development of techniques for the assessment of microplastic pollution and biological effects

Assessment of microplastic pollution in the marine environment [water column, sediment, and biota / chemicals in microplastics]

Assessment of input pathway and transportation of microplastics [rivers, sewage treatment plants / weathering and fragmentation / transportation]

Assessment of effects of microplastics on marine organism [laboratory and field / MP, MP + chemicals]

Assessment of ecological risk of microplastics in the marine environment

Monitoring and assessment protocols of floating microplastics

8

-LMT (d=1.6 g/ml)

9

Incheon / Gyunggi Bay

Youngil Bay

2016 (n=10)

2017 (n=10)

Surface water sampling with a Manta trawl net (330 µm)

Vertical (surface, middle and bottom water) sampling with a Hand net (20 µm)

Monitoring of floating microplastics (2012-2017) 2018-2020

Microplastics Large MP (1-5 mm)

Small MP (< 1 mm)

Large MP (1-5 mm) and Mesoplastics (5-25 mm)

Fragment

Paint chip

Fiber

EPS

Sphere

10

Horizontal and vertical distribution of MP (>20 µm) in Korean coastal water

Station

IC CS HP DR GY BS

Parti

cles

/m3

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000Surface Middle Bottom

a

a

a a*

a

a b

b

b b b b

b* b*

b

b b

b

Duncan’s multiple-range test(p<0.05) * Kruskal-Wallis test(p<0.05)

0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 6.1 19 9.9 19 4.5 8.5 6 11 9.6 18 8.3 19 Mean depth (m) Mean depth (m)

Particles/m3

0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

Dep

th (m

)

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

28

30

32

34

11

Size distribution of MP (>20 µm) in Korean coastal water

Size (m)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100

Ab

un

dan

ce (

par

ticl

es/m

3 )

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

Size (m)

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100

Abu

ndan

ce (p

artic

les/

m3 )

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Fragment

Fiber

12

Sediment sample

1st Density separation

Sieving

Wet peroxide Oxidation (WPO)

2nd Density separation

Filtration

Analysis

Visual sorting - 1-5 mm

Pooling (<1 mm) - Composite sample - Total 2 L (160 ml/quadrat)

- Lithium metatungstate (LMT) - 500 ml sample + 1 L LMT

- Polycarbonate; 1 ㎛; 47 ㎜Φ

- LMT

FT-IR microscope

- ATR/microscope - Thermo Nicolet 6700 - 128 scans; 650-4000 𝒄𝒄𝒄𝒄−𝟏𝟏 - Resolution: 8 𝒄𝒄𝒄𝒄−𝟏𝟏

- Fe(Ⅱ), H₂O₂

Monitoring and assessment protocols of microplastics in sediment

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1mm < s < 5mm: Large-microplastics (L-MPs)

size < 1mm: Small-microplastics (S-MPs)

Sediment sample

Sieving

L-MP (1-5 mm) pooling

S-MP (< 1 mm) pooling

0.5 m

0.5

m

Depth 2.5 cm

Monitoring of microplastics along the shoreline

Backshore (B)

Strandline (S)

Middle line (M)

Water edge (W)

Vegetation or artificial structure 100 m

25 m

wet sand

Sea

South Korea

14

Tukey HSD p>0.05

t-test p>0.01

Tukey HSD p>0.05

L-MP (1-5 mm)

S-MP (0.02-1 mm)

East vs South vs West shore

L-MP vs S-MP

East vs South vs West shore

x53

Abundance of MP on sand beach

15

1 to 5mm < 1 mm

2

Non-target screening of marine plastic debris

Non-target Screening

Analysis

Identification of chemicals included in

plastic debris

Selection of Target Plastic Items

Food(18) ,Fisheries(17), Construction(2),Genera(12),Paint chip(5)

Antioxidant Plasticizer UV stabilizer Flame retardant Fatty acid Pesticide Lubricant Intermediate Toxin etc.

More than 200 chemicals EPS XPS

Flame retardants Anti-oxidant Fatty acids Toxin

PE Plasticizer UV-stabilizer

UV-stabilizer Anti-oxidant PlasticizerPP

PPPE

UV-stabilizer Flame retardants

Antioxidant UV-stabilizerAcrylic

Styrene

Rani et al. (2015) Arch Environ Contamin Toxicol 69: 352 16

Quantitative analysis of chemicals in plastic samples

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Plasticizers, UV stabilizers Antioxidants,

HBCDs

PCBs, OCPs, PBDEs, PAHs

1mm < size < 5mm

Extraction (Soaking)

LC-TOF/MS LC-MS/MS

Extraction (Soaking)

Si/Al cleanup

GPC cleanup

GC-HRMS (EI) GC-MS(EI)(PAHs)

GC-MS (NCI) (PBDEs)

Surrogate standard

Internal standard Internal standard

Surrogate standard

Filtration (0.20 ㎛)

Concentration

< 1mm Size > 5 cm

Microplastic Sampling

Fragment, Fiber, EPS, Pellet, Film

Grinding

Polymer Identification

Film

EPS

Pellet Fiber

Fragment

Antioxidants and UV stabilizers in plastic debris

Rani et al. (2017) Sci. Total Environ. 579: 745

Irg1076 Irg1010 BHT 2,4-DTBP UV320 UV326 UV327 UV328

Cne

w p

last

ic /

Cm

arin

e de

bris

0.0001

0.001

0.01

0.1

1

10

100

1000

10000

100000

Irganox1076

Irganox1010

2,4-DTBP

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

new vs debris

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A brominated flame retardant (HBCD) in EPS debris

19

HBCDs concentraion (g/g)

0 5 10 15 20 25 1500 3000 4500 6000 7500 9000

USA (Alaska)

Peru

Canada

USA (California)

South Korea

Japan

Bangladesh

USA (Hawaii)

Thailand

Taiwan

Hong Kong

Brunei

Singapore

Vietnam

Sri Lanka 0.05

0.10

0.17

0.23

a)

Jang et al. (2017) Environ. Pollut. 231: 785

From Scientific Findings to Policy change

SubstrateEPS HDPE Metal Rock

HB

CD

s in

mus

sel

0

50

100

2000

6000

10000(ng/g l.w.)

Br

BrBr

BrBr

Br

Br

BrBr

Br

Br

Br

High contamination of styrofoam MP Inclusion of hazardous chemical

Rapid fragmentation to microplastics Ingestion by marine organisms and chemical transfer

Jang et al. (2016) Environ. Sci. Technol. Song et al. (2017) Environ. Sci. Technol.

Rani et al. (2014) Chemosphere

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13%

Fishing rope8%

Glass bottle

7%

Plastic bag7%

Plastic food wrapper

6%Plastic cap/lid

5%Plastic bottle

5%

Strip5%

Other plastics

4%

Timble3%

Others37%

93%

5% 1% 1%

EPS particle

Pellet OthersFragment

> 2.5cm 1<s<5mm

EPSbuoy

Lee et al. (2013) Mar. Pollut. Bull.

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Weight of cost and benefits

Polluting beaches Aesthetical effects

Very cheap Easy to handle High buoyancy Styrofoam industry

Benefits of styrofoam buoy Cost of styrofoam buoy

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>90% in mesoplastics Rapid fragmentation Leaching HBCDs Ingestion by organisms

Polluting beaches Aesthetical effects

Increasing cost Easy to handle High buoyancy Effects on EPS industry

Replace EPS to alternative buoy (Government support 40% of price) Increase recovery rate of the used buoy (10% →30%) Regulate HBCD use in EPS buoy from 2017 Development of alternative buoy

Benefits of styrofoam buoy Cost of styrofoam buoy

Policy changed

Acknowledgement

Thank you!