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Microplastics â Part 2: Evaluation of themicroplastic pollution and treatment strategies in the wastewater treatment
Summary
Researchers reviewed how microplastics — tiny plastic particles formed when larger plastics break down — enter and move through wastewater treatment systems, and assessed how well current treatment strategies remove them. The review concludes that while treatment plants can remove some microplastics, addressing the problem fully requires public awareness, responsible consumption, and coordination across government, industry, and science.
The main problem behind plastics lies in the difficulty of their biodegradation as well as in their uncontrolled use and the poor management of waste after the useful life cycle is completed.The objective of this article is to give an overview of the different approaches to the study of microplastics and elimination strategies in water treatment systems.As a result, large quantities of plastic materials are exposed to conditions that promote the physical degradation of these materials, reducing their size until they become a microscopic problem: Microplastics (MPs).Pollution by MPs represents a current challenge, and although elimination strategies in wastewater treatment plants are somewhat effective, more holistic approaches are required that include, among other things, public awareness campaigns on the environmental impacts of contamination by plastic materials, adopting responsible consumption habits, and proper disposal of plastics.From this approach, it is evident that preventive efforts, in order to avoid increasing the problem, involve collaboration between government agencies, the industrial sector, academia, and civil society.
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