Investigation of microplastic pollution in sediment and beach sand samples in the coastal areas of Bursa

In today's world, people's search for low-cost and fast solutions to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population is one of the most important reasons for the increase in environmental pollution and plastics are one of the most important environmental problems in recent researches. Plastics from 5 mm to 1 mm are considered microplastics (MP) and it attracts attention as an important environmental pollutant. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the detection and distribution of microplastics in Southern Marmara region, sand beach and sediment samples were taken from 5 different sampling points in the Bursa in August 2022 and February 2023. Microplastics and Physicochemical analyzes were carried out in the laboratory. Extraction and intensive separation were used as a method for microplastic analyzes. The number, colors, sizes and shape of microplastics were studied in the sediment and beach sand samples. In addition to those datas, polymer type were also examined for plastics. FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) spectroscopy was used for polymer type of microplastics. PP, PE, PVC and PET polymer types were found as a result of FTIR analysis. The total accumulation of microplastics in the summer season is 3984 particles / 1 kg of microplastics and 2576 particles / 1 kg of microplastics was obtained for the winter season. White were the most determined colour of microplastic in summer samples while blue were the most determined colour for microplastics in winter samples. Other than white and blue colour of microplastics, samples were contain grey, yellow, orange, pink, red, green, blue, purple and black colours. Samplings were carried out in different seasons and comments were made on the effect of season on pollution. The current status of microplastics has been determined, their sources have been tried to be understood and recommendations have been presented to minimize their possible negative effects.