Fate of Cosmetic Microbeads and Silver Nanoparticles in Soils
EMSL Project ID
49732
Abstract
Plastic microbeads and silver nanoparticles contained in cosmetic and health care products usually end up in our household waste water, which will then be treated in a waste water treatment plant. There, plastic microbeads and silver nanoparticles are removed from water and accumulate in the biosolids. Most biosolids are being land-applied; in the State of Washington 80% of biosolids are land-applied, mostly to farm- and forest lands. Land-application of biosolids is a biologically intensive practice, and biosolids contain both macronutrients as well as a suite of micronutrients for plants. However, plastics and nanoparticles and their impact on soils has not been investigated. We hypothesize that plastic microbeads and silver nanoparticles are being transferred from the waste water to our soils, where they accumulate. The objectives of this proposal are to quantify the presence of plastic microbeads and silver nanoparticles in waste water and biosolids, and (2) to determine whether long-term application of biosolids to agricultural soils has led to accumulation of microbeads and nanoparticles. We will investigate soils from a dryland wheat cropping system, where biosolids were applied for the past 20 years. We will use electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, helium-ion microscopy, FTIR microscopy, and single-particle mass spectrometry to analyze environmental samples containing microbeads and nanoparticles.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2017-10-01
End Date
2019-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members
Related Publications
Sintim H.Y., A.I. Bary, D.G. Hayes, M. English, S.M. Schaeffer, C.A. Miles, and A. Zelenyuk-Imre, et al. 2019. "Release of micro- and nanoparticles from biodegradable plastic during in situ composting." Science of the Total Environment 675. PNNL-SA-135461. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.179
Taylor S.E., C.I. Pearce, K.A. Sanguinet, D. Hu, W.B. Chrisler, Y. Kim, and Z. Wang, et al. 2020. "Polystyrene Nano- and Microplastic Accumulation at Arabidopsis and Wheat Root Cap Cells, but No Evidence for Uptake into Roots." Environmental Science: Nano 7, no. 7:1942-1953. PNNL-SA-147042. doi:10.1039/d0en00309c
Wang Z., S.E. Taylor, P. Sharma, and M. Flury. 2018. "Poor Extraction Efficiencies of Polystyrene Nano- and Microplastics from Biosolids and Soil." PLoS One 13, no. 11:e0208009. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0208009
Zhang, J., J. E. Amonette, and M. Flury, Effect of biochar particle size on water retention of sand, silt loam, and clay soil, Soil Till. Res., 212, 104992, doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2021.104992, 2021.