Journals › Tropical Agricultural Research
Microplastic Abundance in the Locally Produced Commercial Compost and the Characteristics
Tropical Agricultural Research 35(2): 119–130 · 2024
https://doi.org/10.4038/tar.v35i2.8743
Abstract
Compost is a widely used soil amendment in the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka. Applying compost could improve soil quality, and it is used in reclaiming degraded agricultural lands. However, low grade compost that contains pollutants may have adverse effects on the quality of the agro-ecosystem. Microplastic is a possible contaminant that can be moved into the agro-ecosystem through poor quality compost application. The present study was conducted to assess the microplastic availability and characteristics of locally produced municipal solid waste and agricultural waste compost. Representing commercial scale agricultural and municipal solid waste composting facilities; twenty compost samples with three replicates were obtained for microplastic identification. A combination of methods (manual separation, oxidation digestion plus density separation) was used to separate and detect microplastics from compost samples. This study revealed that; microplastics are present in agricultural and municipal solid waste compost. Municipal solid waste compost contained significantly (p
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