The Microplastics Fingerprinting project is currently about halfway through its four-year funding period. At this year’s annual meeting, the team took stock of what it has learned so far.
Part A: Progress in microplastics sampling, detection and identification techniques
The Microplastics Fingerprinting project is currently about halfway through its four-year funding period. At this year’s annual meeting, the team took stock of what it has learned so far.
Part B: Fate, Transport, and Sources of Microplastics in the Grand River Watershed and Beyond
Lewis Alcott is a postdoctoral fellow in the Ecohydrology Research Group at the University of Waterloo. The lab is run by Professor Philippe Van Cappellen who is the Principal Investigator on the Microplastics Fingerprinting project.
Researchers from the Microplastics Fingerprinting project came together on September 19, 2023 to discuss their efforts to improve our ability to identify, track, and characterize microplastics (MPs) that make their way into the environment.
In urban areas where there is a higher level of concentrated human activities, microplastics tend to build up in the sediments of stormwater retention ponds (SWPs), man-made structures designed to capture surface water runoff.
In this project, we’re trying to estimate the number of microplastics entering the Great Lakes from WWTPs each day, and to determine the ultimate destination of these particles on a lake-by-lake and country-by-country basis.
Researchers from the Microplastics Fingerprinting projectdrove about 45 minutes north of Waterloo to collect sediment core samples from Conestogo Lake.
Frank Zhu is a passionate PhD candidate specializing in microplastic research under the guidance of Dr. Wayne Parker, a distinguished professor in environmental engineering focusing on wastewater treatment.
A new report, published by the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC), has taken a stab at summarizing the state of applied MP science. It discusses what is known about MP sources, distribution and environmental transport, as well as techniques and best practices for sampling and analyzing MPs. The report also outlines what is known about their risk to human health and ecosystems and provides an overview of the regulatory context.
Microplastics Fingerprinting student, Meredith Watson, was recognized as a 2023 finalist in this year’s competition for her video describing her research that analyzes the types and deposition of microplastics over the years.