Microplastics pollution webinar
ECG Bulletin January 2024
Edwards Ltd’s Product Company Clevedon (PCC) considers itself an environmental company, manufacturing equipment to reduce customers’ carbon footprint by up to 95%. For World Environment Day, 5th June 2023, Edwards created a programme of activities, including a beach clean, and a pollution awareness webinar on microplastics by Symiah Barnett, ECG Committee.
Symiah’s webinar began with an introduction to plastics and polymers, inviting the audience to consider the plastics that they had to hand, including PET (polyethylene), PS (polystyrene), ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), and HDPE ( high- density polyethylene); highlighting the statement “Due to their prevalence, this current era has been described as the plasticine era of life”.
Symiah explored the definitions associated with the names for different sizes of plastic: macro-, micro-, nano-, etc. (Figure 1 and Table 1); highlighting the definition for microplastics: “Extremely small pieces of plastic debris in the environment resulting from the disposal and breakdown of consumer products and industrial waste”.
Throughout the presentation, Symiah ensured accessibility for 154 online and 60 lecture theatre attendees, including engineers and chemists, and non- scientific personnel. She identified the main sources of primary consumer microplastics and the methods by which secondary microplastics enter the environment. She presented some of the problems microplastics cause in the environment, including impacts on the thermal and chemical properties of aquatic ecosystems, illustrated by examples such as impaired fertility in oysters exposed to microplastics.
Symiah explored the definitions associated with the names for different sizes of plastic: macro-, micro-, nano-, etc. (Figure 1 and Table 1); highlighting the definition for microplastics: “Extremely small pieces of plastic debris in the environment resulting from the disposal and breakdown of consumer products and industrial waste”.
Throughout the presentation, Symiah ensured accessibility for 154 online and 60 lecture theatre attendees, including engineers and chemists, and non- scientific personnel. She identified the main sources of primary consumer microplastics and the methods by which secondary microplastics enter the environment. She presented some of the problems microplastics cause in the environment, including impacts on the thermal and chemical properties of aquatic ecosystems, illustrated by examples such as impaired fertility in oysters exposed to microplastics.
Figure 1. Graphic illustrating the scale of micro- and nanoplastics compared with everyday items.
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Table 1. Plastic sizing terminology.
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Symiah’s research
Her current research relies on the spatio-temporal measurement of micro- and nanoplastic contaminants in riverine and marine environments, providing a better understanding of their transportation, fate, and consequences. This includes developing methods of sampling, extraction (separation and removal of organic material), and analysis of water and sedimentary samples. She shared photographs of her sample collection techniques, which involved free-diving. A few examples of sample analysis provided insight into micro- FTIR and SEM images. The talk concluded with a lengthy Q&A. The webinar was highly engaging and well received, with employees discussing opportunities to reduce their own contributions to microplastic pollution. A gift voucher was presented to Symiah at our #EnvChem2023 event in Glasgow (Figure 2). |
Figure 2. Symiah Barnett received a gift voucher from Laura Alcock on behalf of Edwards Ltd at
#EnvChem2023.
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