Microplastics Analysis for Surface Freshwater Systems: Improving Accuracy and Throughput for Industry Adoption

塑料材料在现代社会的迅速增长和广泛使用，加上不充分的回收做法，导致环境中积累了被称为微塑料的小塑料碎片。目前对加拿大淡水系统中微塑料的了解非常有限，特别是在加拿大西部。该项目旨在建立微塑料发生与以下因素之间的相关性：1)淡水质量参数，以及2)埃德蒙顿市区内北萨斯喀彻温河（NSR）沿岸的城市和工业投入。从这项工作中产生的数据将有助于建立该地区微塑料发生的基线，并将直接衡量我们的行业合作伙伴陶氏化学加拿大公司和Inter Pipeline的影响，他们经营着主要的塑料制造设施，排放到NSR。该项目的一个关键成果是开发、优化和验证与地表水收集相关的行业快速采用的方法；从这些样品中分离出微塑料；他们的分析使用了高通量技术。该项目与加拿大的塑料科学议程保持一致，并将提供有关淡水系统中微塑料存在和类型的公正、基于证据的信息。这项工作的结果将通过提供描述其环境影响的数据，直接使工业伙伴受益；通过获得有关微塑料样品收集和分析的准确和高通量方法的知识，使环境咨询界受益；各级政府和公众将能够获得有助于制定公共卫生政策的有用数据。

The rapid growth and widespread use of plastics materials in modern societies, combined with inadequate recycling practices, has resulted in the accumulation of small plastic fragments in the environment known as microplastics. The knowledge of microplastics occurrence in freshwater systems in Canada is presently very limited, especially in western Canada. The project aims to establish a correlation between microplastics occurrence and: 1) freshwater quality parameters, and 2) urban and industrial inputs along the North Saskatchewan River (NSR) within the Edmonton Municipal Region. The data generated from this work will help establish a baseline of microplastics occurrence in the region and will directly measure the impact of our industry partners, Dow Chemical Canada and Inter Pipeline, who operate major plastics manufacturing facilities discharging into the NSR. A key deliverable of this project is the development, optimization and validation of methods suitable for rapid adoption by industry related to the collection of surface water; the isolation of microplastics from these samples; and their analysis using a high-throughput technique. This project aligns with Canada's Plastics Science Agenda and will provide unbiased, evidence-based information about the presence and typology of microplastics in freshwater systems. The results from this work will directly benefit the industry partners through data describing their environmental impact, the environmental consultancy community through access to knowledge about accurate and high-throughput methods for microplastics sample collection and analysis, and all levels of Government and the public who will be able to access useful data for public health policy development.