The Generalitat of Catalonia investigated 13 companies of the Petrochemical Complex of Tarragonathe largest in southern Europe, for the contamination of beaches linked to their activity. A problem that the environmental NGO Good Karma has denounced and investigated since 2018.
2018 was a turning point for the beaches of Tarragonain which the presence of plastic remains is usual.
La Pineda Beach, in the municipality of Vilaseca, was the most affectedalthough not the only one for that «Perfect storm»That the sand stained white for the large number of pellets that were there: In October 2018 there were torrential rains caused by the passage of former hurricane Lesliethat joined an episode of [viento de] Levante. Are the two necessary conditions for pellets They reach the beaches of Tarragona.
Now a research team of the URV and the UB first analyzes the presence of microplastics
There have been no surprises. Pineda de Vila-Seca beach concentrates, and by far, the largest number of microplastics in Catalonia. This black point on the Catalan coast was already an old acquaintance among the TechnoTox Research Group of the University Rovira I Virgili (URV), which has been studying the presence of microplastics in the middle and their effects on health.
Now, however, they have analyzed the 580 kilometers of the Catalan coast from Cabo de Creus to Vinaròs and the data are clear: This beach accumulates up to 2,000 microplastics for each kilogram of sanda figure that almost doubles that of the second on the list, a beach in the Bay of the Fangar, in the Ebro Delta.
“What has surprised us has been to see that the beaches of Barcelona, the most populous city in Catalonia, concentrate less amounts of microplastics than other points located further south between Castelldefels and Vilanova and La Geltrú or in large part of the coast of Tarragona,” says Joaquim Rovira, researcher of the researcher Department of Basic Medical Sciences of the URV.
The study, the first so exhaustive that is done on the coast of Catalonia, has analyzed half a hundred beaches of the Catalan coast, A sampling that has allowed to obtain a very careful radiography of the state of pollution of microplastics on the coast and identify its most affected areas.
In the 70 points analyzed – in the longest beaches more than one measure has been taken – samples of intertidal strip were collected, which is the wet sand area that exists between the point where the highest wave and the water level arrives. T
The chemical size and composition of the microplastics found based on the dimension were also analyzed: large microplastics, up to 5 millimeters, identifiable to the naked eye, were mainly polyethylene and polypropylene, especially derived from the degradation of everyday objects, such as plastic bottles or those known as known as known as known as known as known as known as known as Size less than 0.5 millimeters, correspond especially to textile fibers such as polyester and polyamide, and come from when the clothes are washed.
The most affected points for the ‘microplastics’
En La Pineda Beach, which occupies the highest place in the classification, was found accumulation of plastic pellets —That, mainly, from the petrochemical industry, “but the most alarming volume (more than 60%) corresponds to textile fibers, especially polyester in the water that retain the washing machine’s seas.
“At this point, they should spread through the water, but the location of the underwater emissaries between the port of Tarragona and the Cape of Salou prevent dispersion,” says Rovira.
At the mouth of the Ebro River, especially in the mud bay, there has also been an important concentration of microplastics, with more than 1,100 units per kilogramwhich have arrived dragged by the river. The beaches of the Miracle and La Arrabassada, in Tarragona, also registered an elevated number of pollutants (more than 700 and more than 600, respectively) followed by the Cala de Vallcarca, located between Castelldefels and Sitges.
“This data is attributed to the microplastics that reach the sea through the Llobregat River and travel to the South beaches dragged by the currents,” explains the researcher.
The type of sand, determining element
Research has also put on paper how microplastics are distributed according to the characteristics of the sand. «On the beaches of the Costa Brava we detect less accumulation. We attribute this to the fact that the sand is thicker and does not retain as many microplastics as it occurs in fine sand beaches, ”says Nora Expósito, a researcher at CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF THE URVwhich has also participated in the investigation.
The research team points out that the results they have obtained were somewhat expected, due to the large volume of manufacturing plastics and persistence because they are not easily biodegradable.
«Your misuse and poor waste management, uncontrolled spills, etc. It causes the plastics to be fragmented forming micro and nanoplastic that we find everywhere, ”indicates the researchers of the UB Esther Marí and Jordi Sierra, who have participated in the study.
«We have found in continental, marine, residual, drinkable waters, in soils and sediments, in mollusks and even in human feces. We dare to say that plastics, in all likelihood, are the most abundant xenobiotic pollutants on earth, warn.
Faster and more economical technique, ‘fluorescence’
The study promoted by the Technatox team has also served to implement a technique that until now had not used in the collection of samples, but has proven reliable and cheaper. It is based on the detection of microplastics through fluorescence.
This system allows you to radiate filters with a specific wavelength that makes small plastic fragments shine, which facilitates that they are detected faster and more visually.
Of all the samples obtained, a subset was analyzed by this new method and, the other, with the traditional spectroscopy -based system. Once the results were contrasted, they found that fluorescence is a good method to perform a first screening that allows identifying the most contaminated areas.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: Nora Expósito, Jordi Sierra, Esther Martí, Jaume Folch, Nuno Ratola, Marta Schuhmacher, Joaquim Rovira. Detection of microplastic hotspots in beach sand for national surveys using fluorescence microscopy and infrared spectroscopy: Case study on the Catalan coast. Marine Pollution BulletinVolume 214, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2025.117761.