Focus Taiwain 4/13/2023
A local research team has discovered that microplastics pollution in urban rivers in Taiwan is highly related to population density, urbanization and land use.
Microplastics, the plastic fragments or manmade fibers with particle size smaller than 5 millimeters, mostly come from daily life, roads, the manufacturing industry and natural fragmentation, explained Alexander Kunz, a research scholar at Academia Sinica’s Research Center for Environmental Changes, at a press conference in Taipei on Wednesday.
The research team’s findings showed that the level of microplastics found in the rivers were positively correlated with population density and the research has been published in the March 15 edition of the Environmental Pollution journal, according to a statement released by the center in March.