Evidence of microplastics pollution in coastal beaches and waters in southern Sri Lanka

The abundance of microplastics (MPs) in surface water and beach sediment in Southern Sri Lanka covering a distance of 91 km of coastline is reported. MPs were classified according to polymer type, geometry and color of the sites tested 60% showed MP contamination in sand and 70% in surface waters off the coast. The size range of MPs from surface waters and beaches were to 1.5–2.5 mm and 3–4.5 mm, respectively. Majority of these were identified as polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) with some polystyrene (PS) foam at a few sites. Fragments derived from larger debris appears to be the dominant type of MP at most sites and only 2 sites showed virgin pellets that accounted for 14% of the samples collected. •At 60% of the sites tested microplastics were present in both surface water as well as dry beach sediment (sand).•The plastics found were predominantly polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene foam.•High incidence of fragments was found at most sites but polystyrene foam was the dominant MP 3 out of 10 sites.•MPs at 3 of the sites included virgin pellet at low counts.