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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Research advances of biodegradable microplastics in wastewater treatment plant: Current knowledge and future directions
ClearBiodegradable Microplastics in Municipal Wastewater and Sludge Treatment Processes: A Review on Occurrence, Fate, and Effects
Biodegradable plastics — marketed as a greener alternative to conventional plastics — can still fragment into microplastics inside wastewater treatment plants, where they undergo mechanical wear, additive leaching, and microbial degradation, with incompletely understood effects on the microbial communities that make treatment work. This review synthesises current knowledge on how biodegradable microplastics behave in wastewater and sludge systems, and argues that their risks in treatment infrastructure are underappreciated and require urgent dedicated research.
The application of bioremediation in wastewater treatment plants for microplastics removal: a practical perspective
This review assessed strategies for incorporating bioremediation into wastewater treatment plants specifically targeting microplastic removal, including bioaugmentation with microplastic-degrading microorganisms. The authors identified potential in using biofilm reactors and enhanced biological treatment but noted that microbial degradation of common polymers in wastewater timeframes remains limited.
Microplastics’ toxic effects and influencing factors on microorganisms in biological wastewater treatment units
This review examines how microplastics harm the biological treatment processes in sewage treatment plants by disrupting the microbial communities that break down waste. Microplastics alter the structure of these essential microbial communities, reduce their activity, and release toxic additives that cause oxidative stress and enzyme damage. Since treatment plants are a key barrier between pollutants and waterways, understanding how microplastics compromise their effectiveness is important for protecting downstream drinking water sources.
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.
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.
Micro- and nanoplastics in granular sludge systems: mechanisms of disruption, retention, and microbial adaptation in wastewater treatment technologies
This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics disrupt the biological systems used to treat wastewater, focusing on granular sludge technologies. Plastic particles damage the microbial communities that break down waste by causing oxidative stress and breaking apart the protective structures that hold bacteria together. This matters because if wastewater treatment becomes less effective due to plastic contamination, more pollutants including microplastics could pass through into waterways that supply drinking water.
Plastics, Bioplastics and Water Pollution
This review synthesizes what is known about microplastic occurrence in aquatic systems and assesses whether bioplastics and biodegradable materials could meaningfully reduce plastic pollution. It concludes that while bioplastics hold promise, their environmental fate varies widely and they are not a simple solution without improved waste management infrastructure.
Wastewater treatment plant effluent as a source of microplastics: review of the fate, chemical interactions and potential risks to aquatic organisms
This review examines wastewater treatment plant effluent as a source of microplastics entering aquatic environments. The study found that even though treatment plants remove most microplastics, the small amounts remaining in effluent may still contribute significantly to environmental contamination, and the chemical interactions between microplastics and other pollutants in wastewater raise additional ecological concerns.
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.
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.
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.
Bioremediation of Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants: A Sustainable Approach
This review examines bioremediation as a sustainable strategy for removing microplastics from wastewater treatment plants, synthesizing knowledge on bacterial, fungal, algal, and enzymatic degradation pathways across different treatment stages. The authors evaluate bioaugmentation and biostimulation strategies and highlight their potential for integration into operational wastewater treatment infrastructure.
Microbial Succession on Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants: Exploring the Complexities of Microplastic-Microbiome Interactions
This review examines how different microorganisms colonize microplastic surfaces in wastewater treatment plants, forming communities called biofilms that change as the treatment process progresses. These biofilms can include harmful bacteria and antibiotic-resistant organisms that ride on microplastics through the treatment process and into the environment. The findings are concerning because microplastics leaving treatment plants could carry disease-causing microbes into waterways used for drinking and recreation.
Transformation of microplastics by oxidative water and wastewater treatment processes: A critical review
This review evaluates the potential of various oxidation processes used in water and wastewater treatment to transform and degrade microplastics. Researchers found that most previous studies used chemical doses far exceeding what is applied in real treatment plants, meaning the observed microplastic degradation is unlikely to occur under practical conditions. The study cautions that discharging oxidized microplastics in treated water may pose additional environmental risks, including the release of harmful organic compounds.
Microplastics in wastewater plants: A review of sources, characteristics, distribution and removal technologies
This review provides a comprehensive look at how microplastics enter, move through, and are removed from wastewater treatment plants. Researchers found that while treatment processes can remove a significant portion of microplastics from water, large quantities still escape into rivers and oceans. The study highlights the need for improved treatment technologies and better monitoring to reduce microplastic discharge from these facilities.
A progress update on the biological effects of biodegradable microplastics on soil and ocean environment: A perfect substitute or new threat?
This review examines whether biodegradable plastics, often marketed as eco-friendly alternatives, actually break down safely in the environment. The evidence shows that biodegradable plastics often fragment into microplastics rather than fully decomposing, and these biodegradable microplastics can harm soil organisms, marine life, and disrupt nutrient cycles. The findings suggest that simply switching to biodegradable plastics may not solve the microplastic pollution problem and could introduce new environmental risks.
Microbial strategies for effective microplastics biodegradation: Insights and innovations in environmental remediation
This review explores how bacteria and their enzymes can break down microplastics through oxidative degradation, offering a biological approach to cleaning up plastic pollution. The paper highlights innovative pretreatment methods that make plastics more accessible to microbial breakdown and positions microbial strategies as a promising frontline solution for removing microplastics from ecosystems before they can enter the food chain and affect human health.
Microplastics-biofilm interactions in biofilm-based wastewater treatment processes: A review
This review examines how microplastics interact with the beneficial biofilms used in wastewater treatment systems. Researchers found that microplastics can both disrupt biofilm function and serve as surfaces where biofilms form, creating a complex relationship that affects treatment efficiency. The study highlights the need for wastewater facilities to account for microplastic contamination when designing and operating biofilm-based treatment processes.
Effect of microplastics and nanoplastics on the operation of biological wastewater treatment reactors
This review examines the effects of microplastics and nanoplastics on the performance of biological wastewater treatment reactors, focusing on how their hydrophobicity enables adsorption of microorganisms and pollutants. Researchers found that wastewater treatment plants are primary emitters of micro- and nanoplastics to aquatic ecosystems, while the particles also disrupt microbial communities within treatment systems.
A review of biodegradation and formation of biodegradable microplastics in soil and freshwater environments
Researchers reviewed how biodegradable plastics break down in soil and freshwater, finding that incomplete degradation by microorganisms can still produce tiny biodegradable microplastic particles that persist in the environment — meaning "biodegradable" doesn't always mean safe or fast-disappearing.
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.
Microplastic pollution: Understanding microbial degradation and strategies for pollutant reduction
This review explores how microplastics form, spread through ecosystems, and affect microbial communities, then examines how certain microorganisms can actually break down these plastic particles. Understanding microbial degradation of microplastics could lead to biotechnology solutions that reduce the amount of plastic pollution entering the food chain and ultimately the human body.
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.
Advances in chemical removal and degradation technologies for microplastics in the aquatic environment: A review
This review summarizes recent advances in chemical methods for breaking down microplastics in water, comparing the effectiveness of various techniques including advanced oxidation processes. Developing better ways to destroy microplastics in water is important for public health because current wastewater treatment plants cannot fully remove these persistent particles before water reaches consumers.