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Agronomy
Volume 15
Issue 7
10.3390/agronomy15071736
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Quantification of Microplastics in Urban Compost-Amended Farmland Soil Using an Elutriation Device

by
Luigi Paolo D’Acqui
1,
Sara Di Lonardo
1,2,*,
Martina Grattacaso
1,
Alessandra Bonetti
1 and
Ottorino-Luca Pantani
3
1
Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems (IRET), National Research Council (CNR), Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
2
National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), Piazza Marina 61, 90133 Palermo, Italy
3
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agrarie, Alimentari, Ambientali e Forestali, Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144 Firenze, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Agronomy 2025, 15(7), 1736; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15071736
Submission received: 18 June 2025 / Revised: 16 July 2025 / Accepted: 17 July 2025 / Published: 18 July 2025
(This article belongs to the Section Agroecology Innovation: Achieving System Resilience)
Versions Notes

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) present in farmland soils, where urban compost has been distributed since 2005, were extracted using a device based on elutriation, a method developed for marine sediments but not yet used in soil. Since (i) fine earth (diameter < 2 mm) is the standard fraction used for soil analysis and (ii) the size of MPs contained in urban compost may exceed that value, MP were recovered from both the entire soil and fine earth. The recovered MPs pieces were weighed, counted, and characterized using FTIR photoacoustic spectroscopy (FTIR-PAS). Both the mass and number of recovered MPs pieces (>34 µm) were comparable to those reported in the literature for soils. Polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene are the primary polymers. Nevertheless, some issues were highlighted: (i) the importance of sampling the soil by volume, and (ii) the need of analyzing the entire soil sample rather than just the fraction below 2 mm, commonly used in soil analysis; (iii) the necessity of breaking up (i.e., by ultrasonication and/or dispersion) soil aggregates that may withstand the elutriation process.
Keywords: agriculture; urban compost; FTIR-PAS; elutriation; pollution agriculture; urban compost; FTIR-PAS; elutriation; pollution

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MDPI and ACS Style

D’Acqui, L.P.; Di Lonardo, S.; Grattacaso, M.; Bonetti, A.; Pantani, O.-L. Quantification of Microplastics in Urban Compost-Amended Farmland Soil Using an Elutriation Device. Agronomy 2025, 15, 1736. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15071736

AMA Style

D’Acqui LP, Di Lonardo S, Grattacaso M, Bonetti A, Pantani O-L. Quantification of Microplastics in Urban Compost-Amended Farmland Soil Using an Elutriation Device. Agronomy. 2025; 15(7):1736. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15071736

Chicago/Turabian Style

D’Acqui, Luigi Paolo, Sara Di Lonardo, Martina Grattacaso, Alessandra Bonetti, and Ottorino-Luca Pantani. 2025. "Quantification of Microplastics in Urban Compost-Amended Farmland Soil Using an Elutriation Device" Agronomy 15, no. 7: 1736. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15071736

APA Style

D’Acqui, L. P., Di Lonardo, S., Grattacaso, M., Bonetti, A., & Pantani, O.-L. (2025). Quantification of Microplastics in Urban Compost-Amended Farmland Soil Using an Elutriation Device. Agronomy, 15(7), 1736. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15071736

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