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The Effect of Wastewater Treatment Methods on the Retainment of Plastic Microparticles
Summary
This review examined how different wastewater treatment methods retain or remove plastic microparticles, finding that treatment plant design significantly affects how many microplastics escape to the environment. Advanced treatment processes such as membrane bioreactors outperformed conventional activated sludge systems in removing microplastics.
Microplastics as plastic pieces of ≤5 mm in size, are found in most ecosystems, both terrestrial and aquatic. Many of the microplastics find their way into the environment through the wastewater. For this reason, a knowledge of the microplastic retainment performance of wastewater treatment plants of various design is important. In this regard, several wastewater treatment processes have been studied, including new methods that are still at the development stage. This manuscript reviews the literature on such wastewater treatment methods and their ability to retain microplastics.