Spider webs near roads capture all types of Micro plastics and could be used for monitoring pollution

Researchers at the University of Oldenburg have been examining spider webs webs for the smallest plastic particles – on inner-city streets with varying levels of traffic. They found mainly the plastic PET, presumably from textiles, as well as particles from the abrasion of car tyres and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The amounts of plastic particles found depended on the location. Spider webs, the team concludes, are a simple and inexpensive means of monitoring air pollution by microplastics in the city and identifying particularly polluted areas. The samples, collected in a mid-sized German city, were processed with Fentons reagent and measured using pyrolysis-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry for specific, polymer related indicator compounds. All samples contained  microplastics (MP) including tyre wear particles (TWP) contamination in air samples. All the spider webs were contaminated with microplastics. In some cases, the plastic content even accounted for a good tenth of the total weight of a web. Almost 90 per cent of the plastic consisted of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), PVC and material from car tyres. The proportion of tyre debris varied greatly – depending on the traffic on the adjacent road.



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