Occurrence of microplastics in surface sediments of beaches in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the occurrence and abundance of microplastics in surface sediments from four beaches in Lagos State, Nigeria. The beaches are Alpha, Oniru, Eleko and Lekki. Microplastics were taken from the sediments by floatation method. The number of microplastics in 50 g of dry sediment were counted with a photo microscope and results were as follows: Eleko (170 ± 21 items), Lekki (141 ± 36 items), Alpha (133 ± 16 items), and Oniru (121 ± 38 items). Fragments dominated among the microplastics found in the beaches while three polymers; polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS) were identified using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). This study serves as baseline for further investigations on the occurrence of microplastics in the Nigerian coastal environment.