Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Removal of microplastics via wastewater treatment plants in india: Current knowledge and future directions: a review

This review examined the capacity of wastewater treatment plants in India to remove microplastics, synthesizing current knowledge on removal efficiencies and identifying major knowledge gaps and future research priorities. While WWTPs remove a substantial fraction of incoming microplastics, effluents still discharge particles into receiving water bodies, and sludge represents a concentrated secondary contamination pathway.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Study of occurrence, abundance, and characterization of microplastics in wastewater treatment plant in New Delhi, India

Researchers quantified microplastic prevalence in influent, treated effluent, and sludge from a wastewater treatment plant in New Delhi, finding that MPs are present throughout the treatment process and that the plant incompletely removes them, discharging MPs into receiving waters.

2025 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Review Tier 2

A global review of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: Understanding their occurrence, fate and impact

A global review of 121 wastewater treatment plants found that microplastics are consistently present in both influent and effluent, with WWTPs acting as major conduits delivering plastics into aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. While removal efficiencies varied widely, the sludge produced by these plants represents a concentrated secondary pathway for microplastic release to land.

2022 Environmental Research 76 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics removal through water treatment plants: Its feasibility, efficiency, future prospects and enhancement by proper waste management

Researchers reviewed over 80 studies on water treatment plant performance and found microplastic removal ranges widely — from 16% in basic primary treatment up to near 100% with advanced membrane systems — but a major flaw is that removed microplastics concentrate in sludge, which can re-enter the environment. The review recommends optimizing coagulants and sludge treatment to prevent microplastics from simply being relocated rather than eliminated.

2021 Environmental Challenges 181 citations
Article Tier 2

Toward a Better Understanding of the Contribution of Wastewater Treatment Plants to Microplastic Pollution in Receiving Waterways

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.

2022 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 14 citations
Review Tier 2

The Effect of Wastewater Treatment Plants on Retainment of Plastic Microparticles to Enhance Water Quality—A Review

This review examined how well wastewater treatment plants remove microplastics, finding that most conventional systems achieve high removal rates but still discharge significant plastic quantities in treated effluent and sludge. Improving treatment efficiency and preventing sludge application to farmland are key strategies for reducing microplastic release.

2021 Journal of Environmental Protection 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics removal in wastewater treatment plants: a critical review

This critical review of microplastic removal in wastewater treatment plants examines removal efficiencies across different treatment stages, finding that while WWTPs remove the majority of microplastics from influent, they still release millions of particles daily and are a major pathway for microplastics entering aquatic environments.

2020 Environmental Science Water Research & Technology 398 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: Sources, properties, removal efficiency, removal mechanisms, and interactions with pollutants

This review examines microplastic sources, properties, removal efficiency, and removal mechanisms across different wastewater treatment plant stages. Researchers found that while treatment plants remove a significant portion of microplastics, they cannot eliminate them entirely, resulting in the continued release of millions of particles into the environment daily through effluent and sludge.

2023 Water Science & Technology 128 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of the removal of microplastics in global wastewater treatment plants: Characteristics and mechanisms

This review analyzed data from 38 wastewater treatment plants across 11 countries to understand how effectively they remove microplastics. While treatment plants can remove the majority of microplastics from wastewater, significant quantities still pass through into waterways, and the microplastics captured in sewage sludge may re-enter the environment when that sludge is applied to farmland.

2020 Environment International 589 citations
Article Tier 2

Challenges and Fate of Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Processes

This review examines the challenges microplastics (MPs) pose within wastewater treatment processes (WWTPs), noting that WWTPs can act as both sinks and secondary sources of MP contamination in water bodies. The authors survey various treatment approaches and their effectiveness in capturing MPs before effluent discharge.

2024 Microplastics 1 citations
Article Tier 2

The fate of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: An overview of source and remediation technologies

This review examines how wastewater treatment plants serve as key pathways for microplastic entry into the environment, analyzing removal efficiencies across different treatment stages and identifying advanced technologies for improved microplastic remediation.

2022 Environmental Technology & Innovation 159 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent advances on microplastics pollution and removal from wastewater systems: A critical review

This review summarizes the latest research on microplastic detection, occurrence, and removal in wastewater treatment plants. While treatment plants can remove 57-99% of microplastics depending on the stage, significant amounts still escape into the environment through treated water and sludge. The findings highlight the need for advanced treatment methods to prevent microplastics from reaching waterways and ultimately human water supplies.

2023 Journal of Environmental Management 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Wastewater Treatment Plants as a Key Source of Secondary Microplastic in the Urban Environment

Researchers investigated the occurrence, distribution, and characteristics of microplastics in sewage sludge from two wastewater treatment plants in Uttarakhand, India, finding that WWTPs act as a key source of secondary microplastic pollution in the urban environment as sludge concentrates particles removed during treatment.

2024 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Where do they go? A review of the wastewater treatment process and its impact on the fate of microplastics

This review examines the fate of microplastics across the physical, chemical, and biological stages of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) processes, finding that WWTPs act as both sources and destinations for microplastics while not being designed to remove them, and surveying new removal strategies.

2025 Detritus
Article Tier 2

Fate and occurrence of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants

This review summarizes recent research on the abundance and removal of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants, examining how different treatment stages capture or release microplastic particles and assessing the overall efficiency of current infrastructure.

2023 Environmental Science Advances 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Research progress on microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: A holistic review

This review provides a holistic assessment of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants, covering sampling methods, occurrence patterns across treatment stages, removal efficiencies, and the environmental risks posed by microplastic discharge through effluent and sludge.

2022 Journal of Environmental Management 88 citations
Article Tier 2

Occurrence, Characteristics, and Removal of Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants

This review summarizes the occurrence, characteristics, and removal efficiency of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants, highlighting how these facilities simultaneously act as sinks trapping microplastics and as sources releasing them into surrounding aquatic and terrestrial environments.

2025
Systematic Review Tier 1

Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) for Microplastic Removal: A Systematic Review

This systematic review examines how well wastewater treatment plants remove microplastics before releasing water back into the environment. The findings show that while treatment plants catch many microplastics, significant amounts still pass through, meaning microplastics continue to enter rivers, lakes, and oceans that supply our drinking water and seafood.

2020 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 138 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants: Characteristics, Occurrence and Removal Technologies

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.

2024 Water 46 citations
Article Tier 2

Influence of wastewater treatment process on pollution characteristics and fate of microplastics

Researchers investigated microplastic abundance and removal efficiency across four wastewater treatment plants using different treatment technologies, finding influent concentrations between 539 and 1,290 particles per liter that were reduced substantially by primary and secondary treatment. Smaller microplastic particles proved hardest to remove and most likely to persist in final effluent.

2021 Marine Pollution Bulletin 45 citations
Article Tier 2

Sources, fate, effects, and analysis of microplastic in wastewater treatment plants: A review

This review examines how wastewater treatment plants handle microplastics, finding that while they can remove over 90% of particles, the sheer volume of water processed means billions of microplastics still escape into waterways daily. The remaining microplastics also concentrate in sewage sludge, which is often spread on agricultural land. Wastewater treatment plants are both a filter for and a redistribution point of microplastic pollution.

2023 Environmental Engineering Research 31 citations
Article Tier 2

Effectiveness of conventional municipal wastewater treatment plants in microplastics removal: Insights from multiple analytical techniques

Researchers evaluated the effectiveness of conventional municipal wastewater treatment plants in removing microplastics across multiple treatment stages, finding removal efficiencies of 70–90% but documenting that billions of particles still pass through in final effluent daily.

2025 Journal of Environmental Sciences 4 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Removal of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: insights from a literature meta-analysis

Researchers analyzed 147 studies covering 509 real wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to assess how effectively they remove microplastics, finding a median removal rate of 95% after full tertiary treatment. However, significant data gaps remain — especially around the fate of microplastics in sewage sludge and the behavior of very small particles — underscoring the need for standardized testing methods across facilities.

2025 Journal of environmental chemical engineering 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Research Progress on Occurrence, Removal and Fate of Microplastics in WWTPs

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.

2024 Journal of Physics Conference Series 3 citations