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Research Progress on Occurrence, Removal and Fate of Microplastics in WWTPs
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Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are a major route by which microplastics reach rivers and oceans, yet they also remove a substantial portion of incoming particles. This review synthesizes data on microplastic abundance, shape, size, and polymer type across WWTP influent, effluent, and sludge, finding that fibres become proportionally more dominant in effluent while PP, PE, PA, and PET dominate throughout. Understanding WWTP performance is critical because sludge applied to farmland and treated effluent discharged to waterways both represent significant ongoing sources of microplastic contamination.
Abstract WWTPs are considered to be a major indirect source of MPs discharged into the environment. Characteristics of MPs in the influent and effluent water and sludge of WWTPs were analysed, including abundance, type, shape and size. Detailed comparisons were made to summarise the removal efficiency of each treatment process on MPs and the analysis of the factors affecting them, and to analyse the trend of MPs attribution in WWTPs. It is also concluded that the main shapes of MPs in the influent and effluent water of sewage plants are fibres and fragments, in which fibres account for an increased proportion in the outlet water, and the main polymer types are PP, PE, PA and PET; the shapes of MPs in sludge are mainly fibres, and the main polymer types are PP, PE and PET; and the removal of MPs mainly relies on the physical effects of adsorption, interception, flocculation, filtration, precipitation, and so on.
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Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs): A Review
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This review examines the occurrence and behavior of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), finding that while WWTPs remove a large proportion of incoming microplastics, they still discharge significant quantities into receiving water bodies daily. The paper calls for improved treatment technologies and better characterization of microplastic types in wastewater streams.
Fate of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants and their environmental dispersion with effluent and sludge
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Researchers tracked microplastics through a wastewater treatment plant and found 12 different polymer types in effluents and sludge, with smaller particles (25–104 μm) most abundant and fibres displaying lower sizes than fragments. The study demonstrates that WWTPs do not fully remove microplastics and that processed sludge marketed as soil amendment carries plastic contamination.
Toward a Better Understanding of the Contribution of Wastewater Treatment Plants to Microplastic Pollution in Receiving Waterways
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This review examines how wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) contribute to microplastic pollution in receiving waterways, synthesizing evidence on removal efficiencies of different treatment stages and the characteristics of microplastics that escape into the environment. Researchers found that while WWTPs remove the majority of incoming microplastics, they remain a significant source of microplastic discharge due to the large volumes of wastewater processed daily.
Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants: Characteristics, Occurrence and Removal Technologies
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This review summarizes how wastewater treatment plants are a major pathway for microplastics entering the environment, covering the types, sizes, and sources of microplastics found in wastewater. While treatment plants can remove many microplastics, significant amounts still escape into rivers and oceans through treated water and sludge. The authors evaluate various removal technologies and recommend advanced treatment methods to better prevent microplastics from reaching water supplies.
Microplastics in the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs): Occurrence and removal
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A review of microplastic occurrence and removal at wastewater treatment plants found that while WWTPs reduce microplastic concentrations in effluent, they never achieve complete removal, and the retained plastics concentrate in sewage sludge that is often land-applied. WWTPs are thus both a barrier and a pathway for microplastics entering both aquatic and terrestrial environments.
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