Environmental Impacts and Remediation Techniques of Microfibers in Sludge

Abstract

This senior thesis report examines the environmental impacts of microfiber pollution through remediation modeling and a brief experiment of plant growth in soil contaminated with microfibers. Utilizing the limited literature of the newly emerged field of microplastic research, it was observed that there is a severe discrepancy between the prevalence of synthetic microfibers and existing research into the impacts of microfiber pollution. Additionally, studies into microfiber removal from environmental sinks seems to be constrained to wastewater and natural bodies of water. However, microfibers removed from wastewater end up in the sludge of treatment plants, which is often used as crop fertilizer. Though no remediation techniques for removing microfibers directly from sludge or soil were found in the literature, a model is generated to examine the feasibility of using laboratory data in a practical application. Studies into how biodegradation of PET can be accelerated through using different bacterial strains are implemented to model polyester microfiber degradation in a hypothetical farm field. The results emphasize the demand for finding effective remediation methods for microfibers in soil. Following this, an experiment is conducted to analyze what effect, if any, microfiber pollution in soil has on the germination and early growth of corn plants. It is found that increased levels of microfiber pollution seem to correspond with delayed germination and stifled growth. However, the results do not indicate why this pattern is seen- it is unclear if the microfibers have a direct phytotoxic effect or if they just modify soil properties and nutrient availability.