WEEK 10: SLOW AND STEADY

Container 1 & Its 8 subcontainers 

This week wasn't as great as I anticipated it to be; recently I have been feeling upset with myself because of how slow my project has been progressing.  I have spent most of my time shredding plastics and because this process takes time, I am not where I wish to be with my research. I have been incredibly busy with my classes and have been struggling to complete my hours and balance my schoolwork. It felt like I was making too many mistakes, but I suppose life is comprised of trials and errors; so I can't beat myself too much about it.

container 1 sediments after 23 extractions    

Today, I was able to begin my first extraction of microplastics, which felt great because I have been anticipating it for so long. I used DI H20 as a floatation medium and extracted plastics from the surface by simply pouring off the floating particles. Some of the microplastics would not float or often got trapped under the sediment, so I had to tamper with the sediment using a stirring rod. I performed the extraction 23 times on my first container, collecting a total of 8 subcontainers which had the extracted plastics inside. I am writing down the weight of each container and keeping track of the number of extractions I perform on each sample. I extracted the plastics out of container one and have 29  more containers left to go. I also have my protocol developed and will hopefully shred enough plastic to commence trial 2 once I finish.