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Raman-validated image learning enables microplastic prescreening and electronic-waste candidate prioritization
Summary
Scientists trained a computer program to quickly scan microscope images of wastewater particles and flag likely microplastics, cutting down on the slow, expensive lab testing (Raman spectroscopy) normally needed to confirm them. The tool also helped identify which plastic particles likely came from electronic waste recycling, a source of concern since e-waste plastics can carry toxic chemicals. This matters because faster, cheaper microplastic screening could help wastewater plants better track and eventually reduce the plastic pollution that ends up in our water and, ultimately, in us.
Microplastic (MP) identification in wastewater treatment remains constrained by the need to verify visually selected particles individually by micro-Raman spectroscopy. Here, we developed a Raman-validated microscopic image-learning workflow for a full-scale wastewater treatment plant receiving domestic sewage and electronic waste (e-waste) dismantling wastewater. The dataset contained 1554 images from 1136 particles, including 654 Raman-confirmed MPs and 482 non-MPs. For high-recall MP/non-MP prescreening, EfficientNet-B0 with 384 × 384-pixel inputs and particle-max aggregation retained 94.6 ± 3.6% of true MPs, reduced 31.9 ± 8.3% of non-MPs, and excluded 16.4 ± 4.9% of candidate particles before Raman confirmation. Within Raman-confirmed MPs, texture-focused ResNet18 prioritized e-waste-associated candidates defined by operational source-proxy labels based on polymer identity, morphology, and sample context. The top 20% particle-level candidates contained 73.3 ± 12.4% e-waste-associated candidates, with an enrichment factor of 1.322 ± 0.225. This conservative workflow does not replace Raman spectroscopy, but supports workload reduction and source-proxy candidate prioritization in complex wastewater matrices.