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Removal Potential of Microplastics in Organic Solid Wastes via Biological Treatment Approaches
Summary
This review examines biological treatment approaches — including composting, anaerobic digestion, and vermicomposting — for removing microplastics from organic solid wastes, finding that while these methods can reduce microplastic abundance, significant knowledge gaps remain about fragmentation and fate during treatment.
Microplastics have been increasingly used in recent years, and they are discharged into the surrounding areas; they are then simply fortified in wastewater treatment plants. The occurrence of microplastics in the environment can pose a potential risk to human and animal health. Wastewater treatment plants play a significant role in discharging microplastics to the water ecosystem. The large amounts of waste/sludge generated from biological wastewater treatment plants needs to be managed. Activated sludge is a significant reservoir for microplastics and the research on removal of microplastics in sludge via composting, vermicomposting, biodrying, and anaerobic digestion is lacking. This chapter assesses the studies linked to the potential effects of microplastics on wastewater and solid waste treatments. The advancement of possible microplastics-targeted treatment methods is also presented. The techniques for eliminating microplastics from wastewater and solid wastes are also discussed.
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