Identification of Microplastics Extracted from Municipal Biosolids Treated Field Soils

Accumulation and fate of microplastics in soils after application of biosolids on land: A review

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Researchers reviewing land application of biosolids found that agricultural soils receive between 18 and 690,000 microplastic particles per kilogram of soil, with retention increasing in soils rich in organic carbon and metal oxides, and that biodegradation alters plastic composition but proceeds slowly.

Microplastics in Biosolids Treatment Stream: Abundance, Fate and Methodologies

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This review examines the occurrence, fate, and transformation of microplastics throughout wastewater treatment biosolids streams, noting that conventional treatment effectively concentrates MPs in solid biosolids, roughly 50% of which are land-applied as agricultural fertilizer. Land application of biosolid-laden MPs represents a major but often overlooked terrestrial contamination pathway, enabling plastics to accumulate in farmland soils, enter crops, and ultimately reach humans through the food supply.

Microplastics in Biosolids Treatment Stream: Abundance, Fate, and Methodologies

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Researchers synthesized 51 studies on microplastics in wastewater biosolids, finding a median of 14,900 microplastic particles per dry kilogram of biosolids applied to land, with polyester and polyamide fibers among the most abundant polymer types detected.

Microplastics in Terrestrial Soils: Occurrence, Analysis, and Remediation

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Researchers reviewed how microplastics from synthetic polymers have spread throughout terrestrial soils globally, examining detection methods and emerging remediation strategies for a pollutant that now persists in farmlands and natural soils alike.

Microplastic accumulation, persistence, and vertical movement in an agricultural soil amended with alkaline-treated biosolids