This paper sets out a workflow that addresses these shortcomings. Tape lifting (a forensic approach to particulate recovery) is at the heart of this workflow. This technique uses self-adhesive tape to recover particles of interest and results in a tape lift in which those particles are held between the tape and a sheet of suitable material. | Environmental Advances 5 2021 100066 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Advances journal homepage journal environmental-advances The application of tape lifting for microplastic pollution monitoring Claire . Gwinnett Amy O. Osborne Andrew . Jackson Criminal Justice and Forensic Science Department Staffordshire University The Science Centre Leek Road Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2DF England United Kingdom A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords Microplastics MPs are man-made polymer particles in the size range 1 μm to 5 mm. They have been proven to Microplastics be present in all of Earth s environments through extensive global studies. Such studies regularly involve the Microplastic pollution monitoring isolation of MPs from water or other media using a filtration method. MPs are then commonly analysed for size Filtering and polymer type either in situ on the filter or after removal from it by hand picking. These approaches provide Easylift Tape lifting the opportunity for the accidental loss of such particles and do nothing to protect the sample from contamination whilst hand-picking from filter papers is also time consuming. The analysis frequently focusses solely on one technique and rarely facilitates the full characterisation of the MPs. This paper sets out a workflow that addresses these shortcomings. Tape lifting a forensic approach to par ticulate recovery is at the heart of this workflow. This technique uses self-adhesive tape to recover particles of interest and results in a tape lift in which those particles are held between the tape and a sheet of suitable material. In the proposed workflow the tape is Easylift and the sheet is glass. Tape lifting offers significant time saving in the field allowing more samples to be taken. It also creates a secure environment for the particles of interest and facilitates reproducible research by preserving samples for future study. To investigate the recovery rate of MPs
