This document specifies the basic methods for sampling suspended microplastics in water (domestic water, freshwater, seawater, treated wastewater and untreated wastewater), for their subsequent characterization. Suspended particles can also include synthetic or semi-synthetic polymeric materials (such as rubber). This document does not cover chemical analysis, biological (ecotoxicological) methods or physical methods, nor the pre-treatment or digestion methods intrinsic to such analyses.

This document covers general methodologies:

—     for grab sampling, sampling using a set of successive filters of different pore sizes (cascade filtration), for water samples with low, medium and high content of suspended solids, and

—     for net sampling using, for example, manta, plankton or neuston nets.