Environmental Pollution 256 (2020) 113447

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Environmental Pollution
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envpol

Occurrence and characteristics of microplastics in surface road dust in

Kusatsu (Japan), Da Nang (Vietnam), and Kathmandu (Nepal)*
Satoru Yukioka a, *, Shuhei Tanaka a, Yoshiki Nabetani b, Yuji Suzuki c, Taishi Ushijima b,
Shigeo Fujii a, Hideshige Takada d, Quang Van Tran e, Sangeeta Singh f
a
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Yoshida, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto, Japan
b
Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Yoshida, Sakyo-Ku, Kyoto, Japan
c
Public Works Research Institute, Minamihara, Tsukuba-city, Ibaraki, Japan
d
Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry (LOG), Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan
e
Faculty of Environment, Da Nang University of Science and Technology, Nguyen Luong Bang St, Da Nang, Viet Nam
f
Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Microplastics (MPs, plastics < 5 mm) are a growing concern in ecosystems, being found in the soil and
Received 9 July 2019 water environment. One of the primary sources of MPs has been suspected to be road dust in urban areas
Received in revised form as it can flow into waters with runoff. To understand the occurrence of MPs (100 mme5 mm) in surface
18 October 2019
road dust of three cities (Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan; Da Nang, Vietnam; and Kathmandu, Nepal), we collected
Accepted 20 October 2019
Available online 25 October 2019
surface road dust samples. The samples were pretreated (organic matter decomposition and gravity
separation), and all MP candidates were individually observed by microscope for color, shape, and size;
and analyzed their polymer types using fourier transform infrared spectrometry. The abundances of MPs
Keywords:
Microplastic (MP)
100 mm to 5 mm in size were 2.0 ± 1.6 pieces/m2 (13 polymer types) in Kusatsu, 19.7 ± 13.7 pieces/m2 in
Surface road dust Da Nang (14 types), and 12.5 ± 10.1 pieces/m2 in Kathmandu (15 types). We classified the MPs into two
Urban area groups; containers/packaging-MPs and rubber-MPs. Among all MPs, the containers/packaging-MPs
Containers/packaging-MP accounted for 55 ± 5% of the polymer types composition. In contrast, the rubber-MPs accounted for
Rubber-MP 16 ± 6% of all MPs which were higher than those previously published for environmental water and
sediment samples. The containers/packaging-MPs were fragments of various colors while most of the
rubber-MPs were fragments or granules in black. The numberesize distributions of MPs showed that the
mode of formation explains the differences between their polymer types (tearing for containers/
packaging-MPs and abrasion for rubber-MPs). In Da Nang and Kathmandu, the abundance of
containers/packaging-MPs and rubber-MPs were correlated so that those MPs might be micronized from
the originated materials in the sources with the similar composition (e.g. dump points). It was indicated
that the characteristics of MPs pollution in surface road dust might be different depending on waste
management practices.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Microplastics (MPs, plastics < 5 mm in size) have been discov-
ered in environments and growing concern of their impact for
ecosystems (Cole et al., 2011). In the environment, plastic waste
degrades by physical and chemical processes such as wave action
and ultraviolet (UV) light (Andrady, 2011; Isobe et al., 2014). MPs
*
This paper has been recommended for acceptance by Eddy Y. Zeng.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ81 075 753 5171; fax: þ81 075 753 3335.
E-mail address: yukioka@eden.env.kyoto-u.ac.jp (S. Yukioka).
have been found in fish and shellfish, which ingest them (Lusher
et al., 2013; Foekema et al., 2019). Most studies of MPs pollution
were related to marine environments (87%), not terrestrial and
freshwater environments (13%) (Blettler et al., 2018). The key
sources of MPs on land include personal care products, cosmetics,
and clothing (Napper et al., 2015; Hernandez et al., 2017). MPs (e.g.,
microbeads, fibers; targeted sizes were more than 10 mm) found at
wastewater treatment plants were removed at efficiencies of 72%e
99.9% (Talvitie et al., 2017; Murphy et al., 2016; Magni et al., 2019;
Leslie et al., 2017; Carr et al., 2016; Sun et al., 2019). The use of
separate sewage systems for wastewater and rainwater is

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113447
0269-7491/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 S. Yukioka et al. / Environmental Pollution 256 (2020) 113447
considered to be difficult to remove non-point source contamina-
tion in the urban area. MPs derived from littering of plastic pack-
aging or tire wear on roads might flow into waters with rain in the
runoff. The major fraction of road-dust-associated MPs in a Nor-
wegian study was washed from roads and verges during rainfall
(Vogelsang et al., 2018). A modeling study suggested that most MPs
exported by rivers to the seas are synthetic polymers from tire and
road wear (42% of all emissions) (Siegfried et al., 2017).
In previous reports, the investigations of MPs in road dust were
conducted in Bushehr and Tehran, Iran (Abbasi et al., 2017; Abbasi
et al., 2019; Dehghani et al., 2017). It was examined by visual sorting
methods to identify MPs by fluorescence microscopy or scanning
electron microscopy. The road dust contained fibers, fragments,
spherules, and films. To track the source of MPs, a recent study
examined their formation from tires under various driving condi-
tions; their mass size distribution ranged from 3 to 4 mm (Kim and
Lee, 2018). Detailed polymer type analyses of MPs in road dust are
required next to reveal their characteristics.
The numbers of studies and investigations of MPs pollution are
rapidly increasing. However, 69% of studies targeted developed
countries (Blettler et al., 2018). Lebreton et al. (2017) estimated that
between 1.15 and 2.41 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean
every year from the rivers, and the top 20 polluted rivers, mostly
located Asia, account for 67% of the global total. Thus, it is suspected
that the plastic waste from the urban area of developing countries
because there are many opportunities for littering and dump points
on the roads (Fig. S1, Supplementary data). It is estimated that MPs
pollution has escalated rapidly in developing countries owing to
poor waste management and regulation (Tibbetts, 2015; Xanthos
and Walker, 2017). Therefore, it is important to reveal the
Fig. 1. The abundance of MPs (100 mme5 mm) in surface road dust in Kusatsu, Japan (n ¼ 12), Da Nang, Vietnam (n ¼ 12), and Kathmandu, Nepal (n ¼ 13).
characteristics of MPs pollution and their key sources in developing
countries through detailed investigations of MPs. Here, the field
surveys were conducted to understand the occurrence and char-
acteristics of MPs in surface road dust in the cities of Da Nang,
Vietnam and Kathmandu, Nepal; in addition to the cities of Kusatsu,
Japan as a reference.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Field surveys
The surface road dust samples were collected in Kusatsu, Japan
(n ¼ 12), Da Nang, Vietnam (n ¼ 12), and Kathmandu, Nepal
(n ¼ 13), from September to November 2017 (Fig. 1, Table S1). This
study targeted at Da Nang (6th largest city in Vietnam) and Kath-
mandu (the largest city in Nepal) as urban cities of developing
countries. Samples were collected from roads (excluding their
gutters) with a vacuum cleaner (CL102DW, Makita) for 1 min at
each sampling site (2 m  5 m ¼ 10 m2). The disposal paper bags
were used in a vacuum cleaner one by one to collect each sample.
The vacuum cleaner does not have a filter before the paper bag. The
samples were kept in the dark and promptly brought back to the
laboratory for pretreatments and analyses.
Kusatsu, Japan: We collected 12 samples (J1eJ12) in a typical
residential area around prefectural road 141 in Kusatsu, Shiga,
Japan, on 3rd November 2017, following five days of dry weather.
The city, which covers 67.8 km2, has 133,000 people (population
density: 1960 person/km2) (Kusatsu city, 2019).
Da Nang, Vietnam: We collected 12 samples (V1eV12) in the
Phu Loc River basin, Da Nang, south-central coast, Vietnam, on 27th
 S. Yukioka et al. / Environmental Pollution 256 (2020) 113447
October 2017 during the dry season, following seven days of dry
weather. The city, which covers 1280 km2, had 1,050,000 people
(population density: 820 person/km2) in 2016 (General Statics
Office of Vietnam (GSO), 2019; Da Nang city, 2019).
Kathmandu, Nepal: We collected 13 samples (N1eN13) in the
Bagmati and Bishnumati river basins in Kathmandu, Nepal. It was
conducted at four days of dry weather for samples taken on the
10th September 2017 and at five days of dry weather for them taken
on the 11th. The city, which covers 49 km2, had 1,000,000 people
(population density: 20,400 person/km2) in 2011 (National report
by the government of Nepal, 2011).
2.2. Pretreatments and analyses
All samples were first sieved on a less than 100-mm-mesh
stainless steel sieve (75-mm-mesh). Pretreatment involved organic
matter decomposition and specific gravity separation, following a
previous method (Matsuguma et al., 2017) with modifications: For
organic matter decomposition, samples were treated with 30%
hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, Wako Pure Chemical Industries) in a
glass beaker covered aluminum sheet for 1 week at room temper-
ature (20e25  C). The samples were dried at 50  C in the oven after
organic matter decomposition. For specific gravity separation, the
dried samples were treated in 5.3 M aqueous NaI (Sodium iodide,
1.6 g/cm3; Wako Pure Chemical Industries) in beakers for 3 h after
the agitation. The surface solutions were filtered through a 100-mm
nylon net, and the residue was dried in a desiccator for 24 h. When
there were many MP candidates, samples of <2 mm were frac-
tionated by weight. The NaI solution was filtered through a 1-mm-
mesh glass filter for reuse.
All MP candidates on the nylon net were placed individually on a
plate using tweezers for microscopic observation. We measured
their diameters and photographed them with a stereoscopic mi-
croscope and digital camera (STZ-161-TLED, Moticam U, Shimadzu).
The maximum and minimum diameter of each piece was measured
in each digital photo in Motic Images Plus 2.3S software. The sizes
of MPs were calculated as the average of these diameters (Fig. S2).
Every single piece collected were analyzed by attenuated total
reflectance (ATR) - fourier transform infrared spectrometer (Cary
630 FTIR, Agilent) with attenuated total reflectance to identify
them. Background spectra were measured at the beginning of the
analyses, and methanol was used for cleaning the detection area.
The wavenumber range of the analyses was 650e4000/cm. The
polymer types of the MPs were drawn from the library of the
Agilent Micro Lab FTIR software, and the result with the highest
quality was used. When the hit quality was <70%, we compared the
measured spectrum with those of the library and judged the
polymer types from the appearance and shape of the pieces. The
smaller fibrous MPs derived from fabrics (maximum diameter
100e300 mm, minimum diameter ~20 mm (Hernandez et al., 2017;
Wang et al., 2019)) were not targeted, owing to the handling and
detection limits (maximum diameter was 400 mm, minimum
diameter was 40 mm) of the analytical instrument. The laboratory
blank test (n ¼ 3) were conducted with the same pretreatment as
the samples. Some pieces were observed on the nylon net, but they
were not identified as polymers by ATR-FTIR.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Occurrence of microplastics in surface road dust in Kusatsu, Da
Nang, and Kathmandu
The distribution of highest hit quality acquired when judged as
either of polymer types for tested particles were shown in Fig. S3.
For almost half of the tested pieces judged as either of polymer
3
types, values of the highest hit quality were more than 70%. For 84%
of all tested pieces, values of the highest hit quality were more than
50%. In addition, the values of highest hit quality of PE standard
particles were decreasing; 91 ± 3% (3000 mm), 90 ± 3% (350 mm),
78 ± 6% (150 mm) as their sizes were smaller. Moreover, the highest
hit qualities of tested pieces with different polymers were shown in
Fig. S4. For another preliminary test, we analyzed differently
polymer type standard materials (e.g. PE. PP, PS, and PET). Almost
the values of standards ranged from 60 to 100% (e.g. PE: 80e95%;
PP: 91%; PS: 61%; PET: 85%). Therefore, it was speculated that the
values of the highest hit quality also depended on the polymer
types of tested pieces. In some previous reports, some data pre-
processing were needed for increasing hit quality to identify MPs
and identification tasks which how to adjust thresholds for
accepted hit quality numbers required next (Meyns et al., 2019;
Renner et al., 2019). In this study, therefore, the tested pieces
judged as either of polymer types with the values of highest hit
quality with less than 70%, were still counted as MPs in consider-
ation with the measured spectrums, the appearances and the
shapes as mentioned above. As a result, the MPs (72 pieces in
Kusatsu, 167 pieces in Da Nang, and 504 pieces in Kathmandu were
detected from all samples (Fig. S2). The surfaces of the MPs
appeared to be damaged by physical and chemical erosion. The
surface of MPs could be degraded by UV light (Hüffer et al., 2018;
Cai et al., 2018) and the impact of the vehicles.
Abundance: The abundance of MPs in surface road dust was
2.0 ± 1.6 pieces/m2 (n ¼ 12, average) in Kusatsu, 19.7 ± 13.7 pieces/
m2 (n ¼ 12, 9.8  that in Kusatsu) in Da Nang, and 12.5 ± 10.1
pieces/m2 (n ¼ 13, 6.2  that in Kusatsu) in Kathmandu (Fig. 1).
These values highlight the level of pollution in developing coun-
tries, likely due to poor waste management (Tibbetts, 2015;
Xanthos and Walker, 2017), as shown by the many dump points
evident in Da Nang and Kathmandu. The plastic waste in poor
management and regulation commonly entered waters, in partic-
ular, Southeast Asia (Jambeck et al., 2015). In Kusatsu, the abun-
dances of MPs were high at J2eJ4 (3.11e5.27 pieces/m2), because of
pollution nearby supermarkets and commercial facilities. In Da
Nang, the abundances of MPs were higher at V1, V4, V5, V7, V10,
and V11 (21.6e39.6 pieces/m2) because of many dump points
around V1 and V5, and the shops and restaurants around V4, V10,
and V11. In Kathmandu, the abundances of MPs were higher at
Thamel (28.4 pieces/m2 at N2, 27.3 pieces/m2 at N6), where many
shops, restaurants, and businesses cater to tourists. Thus, we
speculated that the abundance of MPs in surface road dust might be
higher in crowded commercial areas. In a previous survey, the
number of MPs was strongly correlated with traffic load, industrial
activity, population level, and the number of shops (Abbasi et al.,
2017). Along rivers, MP concentrations were related to population
density and land use characteristics (e.g., proportion urban/subur-
ban, agricultural and forested) (Yonkos et al., 2014; Mani et al.,
2015). On heavily trafficked streets, however (J2, J6, J10 in
Kusatsu; V8eV12 in Da Nang; N9, N10, N12 in Kathmandu), the
abundance of MPs did not show a pattern because the size of MPs
derived from tire wear could be smaller than our targeted size
(>100 mm), as described in detail in the next section.
The amounts of surface road dust are shown in Fig. S4. In
Kusatsu, the amounts were 0.32e2.02 g-dry weight/m2 (75 mm)
and 0.02e0.11 g-dw/m2 (<75 mm). In Da Nang, the amounts were
1.78e9.65 g-dw/m2 (75 mm) and 0.24e1.02 g-dw/m2 (<75 mm).
Amounts were highest at V1eV4, close to the beach on Da Nang
Bay. Amounts were low at V8eV12, on heavily trafficked roads,
probably because of washing by rain. In Kathmandu, the amounts
were 1.29e4.26 g-dw/m2 (75 mm) and 1.06e2.17 g-dw/m2
(<75 mm). The amounts of surface road dust (<75 mm) accounted for
26%e52% of the total amounts possibly due to incomplete paving;
4 S. Yukioka et al. / Environmental Pollution 256 (2020) 113447
swirling surface road dust in the air was frequently observed during
the sampling campaign in Kathmandu. The relation between the
abundances of MPs and the amounts of surface road dust (75 mm,
or < 75 mm) in Kusatsu, Da Nang, and Kathmandu were shown in
Fig. S5. The abundances of MPs and the surface road dust (75 mm)
explained no significant positive correlated in each city. In the case
of surface road dust (<75 mm), weak positive correlated in Kusatsu
(R2 ¼ 0.34, p ¼ 0.05) and almost positive uncorrelated in Da Nang
(R2 ¼ 0.06, p ¼ 0.43) and Kathmandu (R2 ¼ 0.0003, p ¼ 0.96) were
observed. It was expected that the MPs might be a similar behavior
of smaller surface road dust due to almost no dump points on the
fully paved streets in Kusatsu.
The studies in Iran identified MPs by fluorescence microscopy or
scanning electron microscopy and evaluated pollution as the
number of MPs and micro-rubber; refer to small pieces of rubber
that are on the order of micrometers in size (100 mme5 mm) in 1 g
of dried surface road dust. The abundance of MPs (film, fragment,
and spherical), fibrous MPs and micro-rubber were 6.4 ± 4.2 (MPs),
35 ± 17 (fibrous MPs) and 14 ± 11 (micro-rubber) pieces/g; and
10 ± 14 (MPs), 3.6 ± 6.1 (fibrous MPs) and 11 ± 17 (micro-rubber)
pieces/g (Abbasi et al., 2017; Abbasi et al., 2019). In our results, the
abundance of MPs (100 mme5 mm) was 2.5 ± 2.7 pieces/g-dw in
Kusatsu, 4.1 ± 3.5 pieces/g-dw in Da Nang, and 3.9 ± 3.5 pieces/g-
dw in Kathmandu (Fig. S6). It was expected that these values
were lower than the visual sorting methods by fluorescence mi-
croscopy or scanning electron microscopy, because this study did
not target at smaller fibrous MPs, which were reported to occupy a
large number in the previous reports, due to the analytical limita-
tions of ATR-FTIR. In contrast, this approach with ATR-FTIR can
explain the relations between polymer types of MPs and other
parameters (abundances and sizes) as shown in the next section.
Size: The number-size and number-minimum-diameter distri-
butions of MPs in surface road dust are shown in Fig. S7. The size of
MPs was 1400 ± 947 mm (median 1100 mm) in Kusatsu,
791 ± 530 mm (605 mm) in Da Nang, and 907 ± 675 mm mm (718 mm)
in Kathmandu (Fig. S8A). By t-test, differences between cities were
significant (P < 0.001), because of the formation of smaller MPs on
the more heavily trafficked roads in Da Nang and Kathmandu. We
speculated that the MPs in Kusatsu would be washed off before
becoming smaller because the roads are fully paved, whereas those
Fig. 2. Composition of polymer types of MPs (100 mme5 mm) in surface road dust in Kusatsu, Da Nang, and Kathmandu. Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS),
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyacrylate (PAK), Polyvinyl stearate (PVS), ethylene/propylene copolymer (EPC), styrene/butadiene rubber (SBR), ethylene/propylene/diene
rubber (EPDM), and polyurethane (PU).
in Da Nang and Kathmandu might be degraded for longer because
the roads are not fully paved. The peaks of the size of MPs were
300e500 mm in Da Nang and Kathmandu, which were smaller than
in Kusatsu. It was speculated that the entrapment of those MPs on
the filter might depend on their smaller minimum diameters, close
to the pore size (100 mm). The number-size distribution pattern of
MPs was similar to that of a previous report (Isobe et al., 2014).
The minimum diameters of MPs were 879 ± 644 mm (median
689 mm) in Kusatsu, 504 ± 376 mm (384 mm) in Da Nang, and
564 ± 469 mm (448 mm) in Kathmandu (Fig. S8B). The frequency of
MPs increased as the minimum diameter decreased to 200 mm.
However, a previous road dust investigation found that the size
distribution of MPs overall was positive and skewed, with >75% of
particles being <100 mm, and progressively fewer particles at
increasing sizes (Abbasi et al., 2019). MPs of <100 mm were also
found in waters (Enders et al., 2015). Therefore, it was suspected
that the abundance of MPs based on their numbers become larger
as their sizes decreased. Further pollution by smaller MPs in the
road dust of cities is thus possible.
Polymer types: The various polymer types of MPs were detected
in surface road dust in Kusatsu (13 polymer types), Da Nang (14
types), and Kathmandu (15 types). The MPs were composed by
polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), poly-
ethylene terephthalate (PET), polyacrylate (PAK), polyvinyl stearate
(PVS), ethylene/propylene copolymer (EPC), styrene/butadiene
rubber (SBR), ethylene/propylene/diene rubber (EPDM), and poly-
urethane (PU). PE and PP were used mainly in plastic bags, trash
bags, containers, and films (Li et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2019), were
major polymer types (PE and PP 47%e59%; PE, 33%e50%; PP, 8%e
14%; Fig. 2). Therefore, it was speculated that they derived from
discarded plastic bags or containers, and thus might flow into
waters, where they account for the bulk of polymer types in envi-
ronmental samples (Su et al., 2016; Saliu et al., 2018). PAK
accounted for 6%e22% of all polymer types, and it was reported that
some materials were used as superabsorbents in consumer prod-
ucts (disposable diapers and sanitary napkins) (Buchholz, 1996).
Other polymer types, used in containers, clothing, and disposable
bottles, were also detected (PS, 1%e2%; PET, 1%e5%; PVS, 0%e7%).
Some previous studies reported that PAK MPs were detected in
water and sediment samples (Rodrigues et al., 2018; Matsuguma
 S. Yukioka et al. / Environmental Pollution 256 (2020) 113447 5

et al., 2017). On the other hand, EPC, SBR, EPDM, and PU accounted
for 8% of all polymer types in Kusatsu, 23% in Da Nang, and 17% in
Kathmandu. The ratios of rubber-MPs were higher than those of
environmental water and sediment samples (Saliu et al., 2018;
Rodrigues et al., 2018). These materials are used in vehicle tires,
hose, band, shoes sole or electrical insulation (Vogelsang et al.,
2018; Wang et al., 2019). Therefore, it was speculated that EPC
and SBR derived from rubber products (Wagner et al., 2018;
Vogelsang et al., 2018).
In this study, we classified the MPs into two groups; PE, PP, PS,
and PET as containers/packaging-MPs, and EPC, SBR, EPDM, and PU
as rubber-MPs according to their application. We compared
containers/packaging-MPs and rubber-MPs in different size be-
tween 100e1000 mm and 1000e5000 mm. The proportion of
containers/packaging-MPs decreased at three urban cities as their
size becomes smaller. On the other hand, the proportion of rubber-
MPs increased. It was expected that the composition of MPs was the
difference in the size of them because the mode of decomposition
explains the differences between polymer types and materials, as
described in detail in the next section.
3.2. Characteristics of microplastics in surface road dust by focusing
on their polymer types
We described the characteristics (color, shape, size distribution
and abundance) of MPs in surface road dust by focusing on their
polymer types, and mainly showed the results of Da Nang (n ¼ 167,
MPs) and Kathmandu (n ¼ 504) where MPs were sufficiently
detected, excluding the results of Kusatsu (n ¼ 72).
Color: The MPs were categorized by color as black, gray, white/
transparent, yellow, brown, red, blue, or green (Fig. 3(A)). The
percentage of different colors of MPs (PE) in Da Nang and

Fig. 3. (A) Color and (B) shape of MPs (100 mme5 mm) in different polymer types in surface road dust in Da Nang, and Kathmandu.
6 S. Yukioka et al. / Environmental Pollution 256 (2020) 113447
Kathmandu were 21%, 15% black; 4%, 14% gray; 5%, 27% white/
transparent; 13%, 22% yellow; 1%, 8% brown; 8%, 4% red; 21%, 5%
blue; 26%, 5% green. The results of PP were also similar to the PE
results. In environmental sediment and organism’s samples, most
MPs were white/transparent accounting for 29e44% of them (Su
et al., 2016). However, Matsuguma et al. (2017) suspected that
predominance of white plastics might be overestimated because
colored plastics may have been bleached by H2O2 for the pre-
treatment. On the other hand, 18%e83% of rubber types were black,
and therefore might derive from tires, hose, band, shoes sole or
electrical insulation. Chen et al. (2018) reported that black rubber
MPs which were formed from marine items were observed in
sediments in Xiangshan Bay, China.
Shape: The MPs were categorized as fragments, granules,
sheets/films, or lines/fibers referring to a previous review paper to
(Fig. S9) (Koelmans et al., 2019). Most pieces were fragments (the
percentage of shape: 68%e81%), followed by sheets/films (8%e
13%), lines/fibers (7%e10%), and granules (4%e10%). These results
were similar to the proportions in sediment samples (Matsuguma
et al., 2017). Major shapes of PE in Da Nang and Kathmandu were
fragments (73%, 76%), and sheets/films (15%, 16%). For PP, major
shapes were fragments (54%, 67%), and lines/fibers (38%, 26%).
(Fig. 3(B)). It was suspected that these MPs were derived from
packaging, containers, or bands. On the other hand, the rubber
types comprised only fragments (50e94%) and granules (0e36%). It
Fig. 4. Numbere average size distributions of different polymer types ((A) Containers/packing-MPs and (B) Rubber-MPs) in surface road dust at Da Nang (upper) and Kathmandu
(lower).
was shown that the granule proportion of rubber-MPs were higher
than containers/packaging-MPs. It was speculated that the smaller
rubber granules are derived from bigger fragments by abrasion.
Wang et al. (2019) reported that the rubber MPs derived from
vehicle tires or other rubber products (e.g., roofing felt and cable
rubber skin) were always granules and fragments in black. These
results indicated that the shape of MPs might depend on polymer
types or materials.
Size distribution: The numberesize distributions of MPs of two
types (containers/packaging-MPs or rubber-MPs) are shown in
Fig. 4. The relative frequencies of containers/packaging-MPs grad-
ually diminished as their size increased. This suggests that these
materials, which are used in low-strength containers and pack-
aging, become torn. On the other hand, few rubber-MPs were
detected in the range of 1400 to 5000 mm. The results suggested
that being stronger than packaging materials, they were formed
through abrasion. As mentioned above, the small black rubber
granules formed from fragments through abrasion. In tests of the
formation of MPs by tire wear, rubber MPs of <300 mm were formed
through abrasion under various driving conditions (Wang et al.,
2017; Kim and Lee, 2018). The sizes distribution of MPs by the
analysis indicate that the polymer material strength and mode of
MP formation can help explain the difference between MP polymer
types.
Abundance: We described the abundance of MPs in surface road
 S. Yukioka et al. / Environmental Pollution 256 (2020) 113447
Fig. 5. The relation between the abundance of containers/packaging MPs and rubber-MPs in surface road dust in Kusatsu (n ¼ 12), Da Nang (n ¼ 12), and Kathmandu (n ¼ 13).
dust comparing containers/packaging-MPs and rubber-MPs. The
abundances of containers/packaging-MPs were 0.8 ± 0.8 pieces/m2
in Kusatsu, 12.6 ± 9.3 pieces/m2 in Da Nang, and 8.2 ± 7.1 pieces/m2
in Kathmandu (Fig. 5). The abundances of rubber-MPs were
0.4 ± 0.6 pieces/m2 in Kusatsu, 4.5 ± 5.1 pieces/m2 in Da Nang, and
1.0 ± 1.2 pieces/m2 in Kathmandu. The correlations between the
abundance of containers/packaging-MPs and rubber-MPs were
high in Da Nang (R2 ¼ 0.46, p ¼ 0.35) and Kathmandu (R2 ¼ 0.50,
p ¼ 0.02), where litters and dump points on the road were much;
while the correlation was low in Kusatsu (R2 ¼ 0.09, p ¼ 0.01),
where they were rare. In other words, containers/packaging-MPs
and rubber-MPs were expected to be originated from the sources
with similar the composition (e.g. dump points) in Da Nang and
Kathmandu. It was expected that the abundances of MPs in surface
road dust in this study were lower comparing the previous atmo-
spheric deposition studies (Klein and Fischer, 2019; Dris et al., 2016;
Cai et al., 2017). Because these collected surface road dust might be
freely available using a vacuum cleaner. It is important because this
easily entrained MPs in surface road dust are considered a potential
environmental and health hazard as the atmospheric pollution.
Moreover, in this study, the relations between polymer types of
MPs and other parameters (abundances and sizes) in surface road
dust were revealed by identifying MPs one by one using ATR-FTIR.
4. Conclusions
This study showed that the abundances of MPs (100 mme5 mm)
in surface road dust were higher in Da Nang and Kathmandu
compared to Kusatsu. It was suspected to be high abundances of
MPs crowded commercial areas (around shops or restaurants) in Da
Nang and Kathmandu. The results of MPs were lower comparing
other previous reports because this study did not target at smaller
fibrous MPs. Moreover, we identified the polymer types of all MPs
by ATR-FTIR individually to reveal the characteristics of MPs
pollution (color, shape, and size distribution). It was indicated that
the characteristics of MPs pollution contributed to their polymer
types (containers/packaging-MPs or rubber-MPs). In Da Nang and
Kathmandu, it was indicated that both containers/packaging-MPs
and rubber-MPs with the size of >100 mm could be originated
from the sources with similar the composition (e.g. dump points).
Although this study targeted at MPs of 100 mm to 5 mm, smaller
MPs (<100 mm), including clothing fibers and vehicle tires, might
contribute substantially to road dust (Hernandez et al., 2017; Wang
et al., 2019). Investigation of these smaller MPs is needed to reveal
their formation characteristics. Further studies of MPs should be
conducted in order to project the future transfer of MPs due to road
runoff from cities to the water environment.
7
The main finding of the work
The abundance of microplastics in surface road dust in Da Nang
and Kathmandu were higher than Kusatsu, and the mode of
microplastics formation could be different between polymer types.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by The River Foundation grant num-
ber 2017-5311-011, Heiwa Nakajima Foundation, and JSPS KAKENHI
grant number 17K20062. The authors thank the supports from Mr.
Masaki Kakita and Ms. Moemi Okamoto (Kyoto University) and Ms.
Takako Chiba (Agilent Technologies).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113447.
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