الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Plastics are artificial organic polymers that have only been around for a little over a century. They are widely used by society because of their numerous advantages. They are preferred in all industrial applications because of their small size, low price, and high durability. The plastic production values between 600 to 800 Billion Dollars, which shows the difficulty to interfere by change or recycling. After being dumped into the environment, plastic trash would break down into tiny plastic particles, eventually creating microplastics (MPs) with a particle size of less than 5 mm. It is widely acknowledged that MPs fall into two categories: primary MPs and secondary MPs. Primary microplastics are defined as microplastics that are originally manufactured to be less than 5mm in size and are commonly found in textiles, medicines, and personal care products such as facial and body scrubs. These primary microplastics can be transferred into freshwater and marine habitats via rivers, discharge from water treatment plants, wind, and surface run-off. Secondary MPs are produced as a result of continuous abrasion and weathering of plastic products. Among the sources of secondary microplastics are household items, industrial resin pellets, fishing nets, and other discarded plastic waste. Egypt is the biggest user of polymers in Africa, consuming around 2.1 million tons of them in 2017. Fish is a good source of high-quality protein and an important source of micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals, and polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids so, two commercially important fish species (Nile tilapia and African catfish) were chosen for microplastic detection. |