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Microplastic abundance, characteristics, and removal in wastewater treatment plants in a coastal city of China

Water Research 2019 480 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 60 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Zhong Pan, Zouxia Long, Zouxia Long, Zouxia Long, Zouxia Long, Zouxia Long, Zhong Pan, Zhong Pan, Zouxia Long, Zouxia Long, Hongzhe Chen, Zouxia Long, Hongzhe Chen, Hongzhe Chen, Zhong Pan, Zhong Pan, Zhong Pan, Zhong Pan, Zhong Pan, Hongzhe Chen, Zhong Pan, Hongzhe Chen, Hui Lin, Wenling Wang, Zhong Pan, Zhong Pan, Hongzhe Chen, Hongzhe Chen, Xingguang Yu, Xingguang Yu, Xianglong Jin, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Wenling Wang, Jianye Ren Jianye Ren, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Zhong Pan, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Xingguang Yu, Liangyu Lin, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hongzhe Chen, Xingguang Yu, Hui Lin, Liangyu Lin, Zhong Pan, Zhong Pan, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hongzhe Chen, Liangyu Lin, Hui Lin, Zouxia Long, Zouxia Long, Hui Lin, Zhong Pan, Zhong Pan, Hui Lin, Zhong Pan, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Hongzhe Chen, Wenling Wang, Hui Lin, Zhong Pan, Xianglong Jin, Hui Lin, Xingguang Yu, Xingguang Yu, Hui Lin, Hui Lin, Zhong Pan, Jianye Ren, Jianye Ren

Summary

Researchers studied microplastic contamination across seven wastewater treatment plants in the coastal Chinese city of Xiamen and found that while treatment removed the vast majority of particles, the remaining microplastics still entered coastal waters in significant quantities due to high effluent volumes. Fibers and fragments were the most common microplastic types detected. The study underscores that wastewater treatment plants are both a barrier to and a source of marine microplastic pollution.

Polymers

PE PET PP PS

Study Type Environmental

Studying the abundance, characteristics, and removal of microplastics (MPs) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in coastal cities is of great significance for understanding the impacts of human activities on the marine environment, but currently, little information on this topic is available in China. Therefore, the abundance, characteristics, and removal of MPs in seven WWTPs of Xiamen, a typical coastal city in China, are studied. Sixty samples were collected using an improved sampling method involving an electromagnetic flowmeter and a fast digital camera. The influent MPs concentration is 1.57-13.69 items/L, and it is reduced to 0.20-1.73 items/L in the effluent, indicating that 79.3-97.8% MPs is removed. Based on the daily effluent discharge and MPs removal rate, it is estimated that ∼6.5 × 10 MPs are released from the seven WWTPs into the Xiamen Bay each day. The light microscopic and micro-Raman spectroscopic analysis indicates that ∼62.68% of particles are plastic polymers, including polypropylene (31.6%), polyethylene (21.9%), polystyrene (10.1%), propylene/ethylene copolymer (9.2%), and polyethylene terephthalate (7.5%). The color of MPs is mainly composed of white (27.3%) and clears (25.8%). Our results show that granules (41.1%) are the dominant shape of MPs, followed by fragments (31.3%), fibers (23.7%), and pellet (3.9%). The characteristics of MPs such as sizes, shapes, and types affect the MPs removal in WWTPs. Our findings show that MPs concentration in the influent is positively correlated with the suspended solids (SS), however, in the effluent, it is associated with the WWTPs operating load, as reflected by obviously higher MP abundance in overloaded ones.

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