Micro (nano) Plastics Released from Plastic Food Containers

Abstract

The pollution of micro (nano) plastics is one of the most urgent global environmental problems. Micro (nano) plastics will release from plastic products (e.g., food related products) to the environment, causing potential threats to human health and ecosystem. Therefore, the release of micro (nano) plastics from plastic products (e.g., food containers) deserves more concerns. In the present work, plastic food container was chosen to investigate the release of micro (nano) plastics under two heating methods (100°C hot water and microwave heating) and reuse within nine times were further investigated the release characteristics. The findings demonstrate that: (1) The maximum release amount was 10.3±0.2×1010 particles/L, which was occurred under microwave heating, and it was twice greater than that under hot water heating, indicating that microwave heating could enhance micro (nano) plastics releasing; (2) The amounts of released micro (nano) plastics would fluctuate, and the fluctuation was getting smaller as the use times increasing; (3) The number of use times had no influence on the released particle size, and the amount of nanoplastics (<400 nm) was dominant in the released micro (nano) plastics. Therefore, micro (nano) plastics production from food containers represents a key source of microplastic contamination in the ecosystem.