Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

How can we trace microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: A review of the current knowledge on their analysis approaches

This review critically evaluates the analytical methods used to detect microplastics in wastewater treatment plants, covering sampling strategies, extraction and purification procedures, and identification techniques including spectroscopy. The authors highlight a lack of standardized methods as the primary challenge limiting accurate and comparable measurements across studies.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 46 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic contamination in wastewater: Sources, distribution, detection and remediation through physical and chemical-biological methods

This review covers how microplastics end up in wastewater from sources like textile fibers, personal care microbeads, and broken-down plastic debris, and how they often survive the treatment process. Current removal methods like filtration and chemical degradation are costly and not fully effective. The lack of standardized ways to measure microplastics in wastewater makes it difficult to assess the full scope of human exposure through water systems.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 118 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

Extraction and analytical methods of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: Isolation patterns, quantification, and size characterization techniques

This review summarizes the different methods scientists use to find, measure, and identify microplastics in wastewater treatment plants. It found 12 distinct sample processing approaches and three categories of analytical techniques currently in use, but no single standardized method exists. The lack of consistent methods makes it hard to compare results across studies and fully understand how much microplastic enters the environment through treated wastewater.

2024 Desalination and Water Treatment 26 citations
Article Tier 2

An overview on the characterization of microplastics (MPs) in waste water treatment plants (WWTPs)

This review examines the methods used to characterize microplastics found in wastewater treatment plants, covering chemical, morphological, and thermal analysis techniques. The researchers found that while various technologies can identify microplastics, no single method provides a complete picture, and standardized protocols are still lacking. Understanding the types and quantities of microplastics passing through treatment plants is essential for improving removal strategies and reducing environmental discharge.

2024 Sustainable Water Resources Management 9 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

Microplastics in Wastewater

This review examines microplastic detection, occurrence, and removal across wastewater treatment plant stages, finding that while treatment plants are a major source of microplastic pollution, no standardized detection protocols exist and removal efficiency remains inconsistent across facilities.

2023
Article Tier 2

Nano/microplastics in water and wastewater treatment processes – Origin, impact and potential solutions

This review examined the origin, fate, and impacts of nano- and microplastics in water and wastewater treatment processes, finding that small particle sizes and diverse polymer compositions make complete removal challenging across conventional and advanced treatment stages. The authors identify detection limitations and process instability as key barriers to effective water treatment for nanoplastics.

2019 Water Research 624 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

Detection and removal of microplastics in wastewater: evolution and impact

This review covers methods for detecting and removing microplastics from wastewater, which is a major pathway for microplastics to enter the environment. Microplastics in water can carry heavy metals, disease-causing organisms, and chemical additives, and are eventually consumed by aquatic life that enters the human food chain. The authors emphasize that better wastewater treatment technology is needed to reduce human exposure to microplastics through water and seafood.

2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 257 citations
Article Tier 2

Investigating Approaches and Technologies for Microplastics in Wastewater Management

This chapter reviews approaches and technologies for managing microplastics in wastewater, covering sources, treatment methods, and environmental fate. The authors note that microplastics enter wastewater from domestic activities, industrial discharges, and stormwater runoff, with particle size distribution and wastewater composition affecting treatment outcomes. The study emphasizes the need for comprehensive strategies to address microplastic contamination before it reaches aquatic ecosystems.

2024 2 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2024 Journal of Contaminant Hydrology 23 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 pathway for microplastics: Development of a new approach to sample wastewater-based microplastics

Researchers developed a new sampling and monitoring protocol for microplastics at wastewater treatment plants, enabling more consistent tracking of microplastic loads through treatment stages and discharged effluent.

2017 Water Research 1317 citations
Review Tier 2

Microplastics in wastewater treatment plants: A literature review of sampling methods and results

This review chapter summarizes sampling methods and reported microplastic concentrations in wastewater treatment plants across multiple studies. The review highlights wide variation in reported results and calls for standardized monitoring methods to enable meaningful comparisons of microplastic removal efficiency across different treatment facilities.

2020 IWA Publishing eBooks
Article Tier 2

Nano and microplastics occurrence in wastewater treatment plants: A comprehensive understanding of microplastics fragmentation and their removal

This review provides a comprehensive look at how nano- and microplastics move through wastewater treatment plants, from entry to discharge. Researchers examined how larger plastic particles fragment into smaller nano-sized pieces during treatment processes and evaluated which treatment stages are most effective at removing them. The study finds that while conventional treatment removes most microplastics, significant quantities of nanoplastics may still pass through into waterways.

2023 Chemosphere 88 citations
Article Tier 2

Method development for microplastic analysis in wastewater

This book chapter describes methods developed to detect and measure microplastics in wastewater samples, addressing the lack of standardized analytical protocols. Reliable detection methods are essential because wastewater treatment plants are a major pathway through which land-based microplastics enter aquatic environments.

2020 IWA Publishing eBooks 1 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

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

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
Article Tier 2

Analysis of micro- and nanoplastics in wastewater treatment plants: key steps and environmental risk considerations

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics behave within wastewater treatment plants, which are a major pathway for these particles entering the environment. Researchers highlight that treatment plants can remove many microplastics but often transfer them to sewage sludge, which is then spread on agricultural land. The study calls for better standardized methods to measure nanoplastics in wastewater and assess the environmental risks of treatment byproducts.

2023 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 18 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
Systematic Review Tier 1

Examining the Presence of Microplastics in Wastewater

This systematic review analyzes over 5,000 studies on microplastics found in wastewater, covering research from 2000 to 2023. The analysis shows a rapid increase in research on detecting and removing microplastics from wastewater in recent years. Understanding how well our water treatment systems handle microplastics is important because treated wastewater can be a source of these particles entering our drinking water and food supply.

2024
Article Tier 2

Challenges and Treatment of Microplastics in Water

This review covers the challenges of detecting and removing microplastics from water, noting that their small size and diverse composition make treatment difficult. Most conventional water treatment processes are not designed to remove microplastics effectively.

2018 InTech eBooks 42 citations