Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 mm that are polluting soil, water, and other environments. Detecting and measuring them accurately is difficult because current methods often require complicated sample preparation, which can cause contamination or reduce accuracy. In this study, two methods are tested to see how well they can detect microplastics in soil and sand: Rock-Eval and Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (Py-GC-MS). Known amounts of common plastics—polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP)—are added to soil and sand samples, and the ability of each method to detect them is tested.

Results show that Py-GC-MS is much more sensitive, able to detect microplastics at extremely low levels (as little as 0.00034%), while Rock-Eval is better at detecting higher concentrations (0.5% and above) but not useful for finding very small amounts. This study shows that Py-GC-MS is a more reliable tool for detecting tiny amounts of microplastics, and it could help create better, simpler testing methods for environmental monitoring.