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Rivers as conduits of microplastic emission from wastewater treatment plants to the sea
Summary
Researchers developed a mechanistic model to simulate microplastic emissions from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to the sea via riverine transport in China, coupling detailed WWTP removal efficiencies with river transport dynamics and finding that fibers in particular escape treatment in significant quantities.
This study is the first to comprehensively simulate the emission of microplastics (MPs) from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to the sea throughout riverine transport in China using mechanistic modeling coupled with detailed removal efficiencies of various biotic and abiotic wastewater treatment processes. WWTPs are important sources of MPs to the aquatic ecosystem. Various studies have confirmed that WWTPs are able to remove part of the MPs from wastewater through their biotic and abiotic treatment processes. However, there is still quite a large part of MPs, especially fibers that are released into the aquatic system through discharged treated wastewater. Previous modeling studies usually use a simple number of percentages to describe the processes in WWTPs and river transport. A comprehensive method for estimating of emission flux of MPs in a large geographic area is lacking, we constructed a comprehensive WWTPs database which consists of over 10,000 WWTPs in China to assess the contribution of WWTPs to river MPs considering detailed removal efficiency in each step of wastewater treatment in every single WWTP. Thereafter, the MP retention in riverine transport was modeled based on mechanistic modeling in all sea-going rivers in China. This study is the first of this kind to make such a comprehensive estimate of WWTP's potential contribution to MP emission into aquatic ecosystems and subsequent flux into the sea.
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