Project Specifics

A confidential federal client developed several new polymer-blend construction materials using virgin materials, with the goal of eventually manufacturing the final products using waste stream plastics and glass from local municipal recycling facilities. To support the client, Geosyntec performed environmental risk assessments to assess potential risks to aquatic environments.

Geosyntec Scope of Services

We conducted environmental risk assessments on these novel, lightweight building materials to assess the potential risks of chemical and microplastic releases. The project included identifying potentially toxic constituents associated with the source materials and providing testing recommendations to mimic and assess how environmental weathering and wear of the material could liberate chemicals, microplastic particles, or both.

The scope assumed the novel material would be used in sidewalks and that the material tested would include blends of different polymers and glass. Testing included leachate analysis, weathering, and abrasion durability. Post-weathering and abrasion rinsate samples were collected for microplastics analysis.

The team developed preliminary conceptual site models to assess the significance of potential release and transport pathways and better understand the susceptibility of environmental receiving media (e.g., soil, surface water). Geosyntec also identified relevant receptor populations that could be adversely impacted by fugitive releases of construction material.

Notable Accomplishments

Geosyntec provided recommendations and oversight for the analytical methods used to generate particle counts and polymer identification and supported the placement and review of supporting studies. Resulting data were analyzed and compared to relevant ecological toxicological effects criteria from the primary literature to assess potential risk to aquatic environments.

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