PMID- 35093377
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20220316
LR  - 20220316
IS  - 1879-1026 (Electronic)
IS  - 0048-9697 (Linking)
VI  - 821
DP  - 2022 May 15
TI  - Short-term exposure to soils and sludge induce changes to plastic morphology and 
      (13)C stable isotopic composition.
PG  - 153375
LID - S0048-9697(22)00467-3 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153375 [doi]
AB  - There is concern about the buildup of plastic waste in soil, their degradation 
      into microplastics, and their potential to interfere with the natural processing 
      of soil organic carbon and other nutrient cycling processes. Here we used 
      scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and (13)C isotope ratio mass spectrometry to 
      determine if precut consumer plastics comprised of either high density 
      polyethylene (HDPE), a blend of linear low density polyethylene and low density 
      polyethylene (L/LDPE), or polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) would degrade or 
      transform during a short-term, 32 day, exposure to soil or sludge in laboratory 
      microcosms. SEM confirmed morphological changes occurred to all plastics, but the 
      attachment of biofilm and presence of microorganisms mostly favored PETE and HDPE 
      surfaces. These observations support the idea that abiotic and/or biotic 
      processes may degrade plastics in soil; however distinguishable and significant 
      changes in mean stable isotopic values (Deltadelta(13)C) of ~0.2-0.7 per thousand were only observed 
      for exposed PETE and HDPE. This indicates that each plastic's degradation in soil 
      may be dependent on their physical and chemical properties, with L/LDPE being 
      more resistant and less prone to degradation compared to the others, and less 
      dependent on the environmental conditions or properties of the soil or sludge. 
      Our experiments were short-term and while the mechanisms of degradation are not 
      clear, the results provide strong motivation for further studies of plastic fate 
      and processing in soil systems. Direct mechanistic studies using stable isotopic 
      approaches in combination with other characterizations and techniques are clearly 
      warranted and may lead to a significant enhancement in our present understanding 
      of the interactions and dynamics of plastics in the soil environment.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
FAU - Giebel, Brian M
AU  - Giebel BM
AD  - Environmental Sciences Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, The Graduate 
      Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10031, USA. Electronic address: 
      bgiebel@gc.cuny.edu.
FAU - Cime, Schidza
AU  - Cime S
AD  - Chemical Engineering Department, The City College of New York, City University of 
      New York, New York, NY 10031, USA.
FAU - Rodgers, Lauren
AU  - Rodgers L
AD  - Environmental Sciences Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, The Graduate 
      Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10031, USA.
FAU - Li, Tai-De
AU  - Li TD
AD  - Nanoscience Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, The Graduate Center, 
      City University of New York, New York, NY 10031, USA.
FAU - Zhang, Sheng
AU  - Zhang S
AD  - Nanoscience Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, The Graduate Center, 
      City University of New York, New York, NY 10031, USA.
FAU - Wang, Tong
AU  - Wang T
AD  - Nanoscience Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, The Graduate Center, 
      City University of New York, New York, NY 10031, USA.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20220129
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Sci Total Environ
JT  - The Science of the total environment
JID - 0330500
RN  - 0 (Isotopes)
RN  - 0 (Plastics)
RN  - 0 (Sewage)
RN  - 0 (Soil)
RN  - 7440-44-0 (Carbon)
RN  - 9002-88-4 (Polyethylene)
SB  - IM
MH  - Carbon
MH  - Isotopes
MH  - *Plastics
MH  - Polyethylene
MH  - Sewage
MH  - *Soil
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Microplastic
OT  - Morphology
OT  - SEM microbes
OT  - Soil
OT  - Stable isotopes
COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known 
      competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared 
      to influence the work reported in this paper.
EDAT- 2022/01/31 06:00
MHDA- 2022/03/17 06:00
CRDT- 2022/01/30 20:28
PHST- 2021/10/26 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/12/16 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2022/01/20 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2022/01/31 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2022/03/17 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2022/01/30 20:28 [entrez]
AID - S0048-9697(22)00467-3 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153375 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Sci Total Environ. 2022 May 15;821:153375. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.153375. 
      Epub 2022 Jan 29.