Study on Microplastics by Types of Laundry Detergent

This study was conducted a microplastic analysis on the types of laundry detergent. Coin, sheet, liquid, capsule, and powder types of the laundry detergent were prepared and pretreated to check microplastics in each detergent. After pretreatment process, the quantities, characteristics, sizes and shapes of microplastics in the detergents were analyzed using an FT-IR microscope and a digital microscope. The average quantity of microplastics was 4.3ea/10 g for coin type, 39.0ea/10 g for sheet type, 11.3ea/10 g for liquid type, 7.3ea/10 g for capsule type, and 6.3ea/10 g for powder type. The highest quantity of microplastics were found in the sheet type detergents and the lowest quantity of microplastics were found in the coin type detergents. The components of microplastics were mostly composed of PP (38.7%) and PE (51.3%) in most detergents, but polyester (10.0%) was only detected in capsule type detergent. The size of microplastics was dominant in the size class 50-100 μm (46.0%), which was followd by < 50 μm (21.9%), > 200 μm (16.5%), 100-150 μm (9.1%), and 150-200 μm (6.5%). In all the detergents tested, the shape of microplastics was mostly found to be fragmented. However, it was confirmed that fiber types were detected in many sheet type detergents, and fiber types and spheres were detected in liquid type detergents. Through this study, the characteristics of microplastics by types of laundry detergent can be confirmed. This paper is expected to be helpful in establishing measures to prevent microplastic water contamination from laundry detergents.