Plastic fluxes and composition change in transportation and accumulation process of the urban river, Mongolia

Munkhbat, D.*; Battulga, B. ; Oyuntsetseg, B.*; Kawahigashi, Masayuki*

Plastic waste is one of the high amounts of pollutants released from urban areas to the river. We had a field survey from urban rivers in Ulaanbaatar city, Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar occupies 0.03% of the Mongolian territory, but 51% of the total population lives in the city. We collected plastic samples from the 9 points at the river shore of Tuul and its tributaries. Distribution of plastic density was determined in the river shore sediment and in the river flow using a plankton net. River shore plastic items ranged between 0.820.34 and 13.7210.53 item/m. Micro, meso, macro, and mega-sized plastics with the composition of fiber, film, foam, and fragments distributed more diversely in all sampling sites in the river shore.