| Microplastics, which are small plastic particles and fibers less than five millimeters long, have recently been recognized asemerging pollutants in the aquatic environment. Especially, loading of microplastics fibers from washing machines to sewerage systems is of great concern. In contrast, there is some difficultly in detecting microplastic fibers in wastewater samples by conventional Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) based method due to the fiber’s extremely short minor axis and the presence of wastewater matrices. This study demonstrates the examination processes to develop a method for detecting microplastic fibers in wastewater by means of fluorescent staining and observing by epifluorescence microscope. In addition, the developed method was applied for wastewater samples obtained from field surveys at wastewater treatment plants. |
