MICROPLASTIC DISTRIBUTION IN WATER AND SEDIMENTS OF CIWALENGKE RIVER, MAJALAYA

• Main Author: FIRDHA CAHYA ALAM NIM 25315029
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/27350
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

<br /> <br /> Microplastic is a problem that is being studied in recent years. Because of limited microplastic research in Indonesia, this research is important as an early description of microplastic distribution in Indonesia, especially in watershed areas. This study aims to determine the microplastic distribution in the Ciwalengke River, Majalaya, which is one of the tributaries of Citarum with the condition of land use around the river which is dominated with textile industry. Microplastics sized about 50-2000 &#956;m were found in the Ciwalengke River, Majalaya. An average of about 5.85 ± 3.28 particles per liter and 3.03 ± 1.59 microplastic particles per 100 grams of dry sediments found in water and sediments of the Ciwalengke River respectively. The dominant microplastic particles found are fiber, 65% in water and 91% in sediment, with other forms such as fragments or granules. The number of microplastics found to be at the most industrial point in both water and sediment samples. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed that there were significant differences in the number of microplastic particles on the sampling sites in the sediment samples (p-value <0.05), but not significant in the water samples (p-value> 0.05). The location segment with the more dominant industrial number gave the difference of the most significant microplastic count compared to the other location segments in the sediment sample (Two sample Wilcoxon test, pvalue <0.05). These results indicate that industrial sites have a significant effect on microplastic concentrations in the Ciwalengke River. This is also evidenced by Raman testing of several microplastic samples indicating the type of microplastic polyester, polyamide, and nylon found. The type of plastic polymer was predominantly derived from industrial samples. Thus, the proposed solution in microplastic management could be the optimization of the textile industry's WWTP to reduce the amount of microplastic discharged into the environment, accompanied by the preparation of standard rules related to microplastic pollution in aquatic environments since microplastic pollution standards have not existed to date. <br />