Identification and Characterization of Microplastics on the Surface Water in Laguna de Bay, Philippines

Deocaris, C. C.; Fernandez, M. C.; Lee, A. R.; Miao, S. L. A.; Padolina, J. B. P.

Identification and Characterization of Microplastics on the Surface Water in Laguna de Bay, Philippines

2023

Deocaris, C. C. | Fernandez, M. C. | Lee, A. R. | Miao, S. L. A. | Padolina, J. B. P.

Laguna de Bay is the largest lake in the Philippines. It is surrounded by developing cities that pollute the lake with plastics from different industrial and domestic activities. In the study, microplastics were collected from the lake’s surface water through three (3) collection points within the lake. The collection of microplastics was conducted from August 2018 to October 2018. About eight-hundred ninety (890) microplastics were collected and cataloged. Among the collection sites, ‘Brgy. Sampiruhan’ has the most microplastics, with a median of 15 ranging from 11-24 microplastics per 1000 L of lake water. On the other hand, ‘Brgy. Napindan’ has a median of 4 which ranges from 2-6 microplastics per 1000 L, and ‘Brgy. San Isidro’ has a median of 6 which ranges from 4-24 microplastics per 1000 L. Image analysis revealed that microplastics from this site were larger and angular. The color analysis shows signs of whitening and yellowing of the plastic materials, which suggests that the microplastics undergo photodegradation. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) found that most of the microplastics in the lake are made of polyethylene and its derivatives. Microplastics in Laguna de Bay show the continuous plastic pollution in the Philippines’ largest lake.

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