Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Occurrence and Removal of Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants: Perspectives on Shape, Type, and Density

Researchers compiled data from multiple countries on microplastic removal efficiency across different stages of wastewater treatment plants. They found that removal rates varied widely, from 48% in some facilities to over 90% in others, depending on the treatment technologies employed. The study suggests that while conventional wastewater treatment can capture a significant portion of microplastics, advanced tertiary treatment methods are needed to further reduce discharge into the environment.

2024 Water 11 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
Review Tier 2

Removal of microplastics and nanoplastics in water treatment processes: A systematic literature review

Researchers systematically reviewed 103 studies across 26 water treatment plants in 12 countries to assess how well various technologies remove microplastics and nanoplastics from drinking water, finding that while coagulation, filtration, and advanced treatments help, significant gaps remain. The review identifies that no single process achieves complete removal, leaving microplastics as a persistent contaminant in treated water supplies.

2024 Journal of Water Process Engineering 34 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Meta-Analysis of Global Water Contaminants and Chemical Treatment Techniques

This meta-analysis pools data from studies worldwide to evaluate how well chemical treatment methods remove major water contaminants, including microplastics. The findings show that while conventional treatment can reduce many pollutants, microplastics and other emerging contaminants present ongoing challenges for ensuring safe drinking water.

2025 1 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
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

Recent occurrence of microplastics in freshwater and efficiency of available treatment technologies

Researchers reviewed six years of global data on microplastics in freshwater systems, finding them in rivers, lakes, and groundwater across five continents, with conventional water treatment removing 85–95% of larger particles but struggling with smaller fragments. The review also found that nanoplastics may be 10–100 times more common than microplastics yet remain nearly impossible to detect with current technology.

2025 Next research. 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of microplastics via drinking water treatment: Current knowledge and future directions

This review examines what is currently known about microplastics in drinking water systems and how well existing water treatment processes remove them. Researchers found that while conventional treatment steps like coagulation and filtration do reduce microplastic levels, significant amounts can still persist through to tap water. The study calls for more research into optimizing treatment processes and developing monitoring strategies specifically targeting microplastic contamination in drinking water.

2020 Chemosphere 386 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Microplastic pollution in aquatic environments: a meta-analysis of influencing factors and methodological recommendations

This meta-analysis pools data from over 60 European studies to identify the key factors that influence microplastic concentrations in rivers, lakes, and oceans. The findings reveal that population density, proximity to urban areas, and sampling methods all significantly affect measured levels, helping researchers better understand where microplastic exposure risks are highest.

2025 Frontiers in Environmental Science 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Developing a Methodology for the Testing of Microplastics in Drinking Water Treatment Plants

Researchers developed a standardized methodology for testing microplastic removal efficiency at drinking water treatment plants, including sampling, analysis, and reporting protocols. Having consistent methods is critical for comparing microplastic contamination across different water treatment facilities and establishing regulatory benchmarks.

2021 Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast)
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

Differences in the occurrence of microplastic at two technically diverse drinking water treatment plants within the same river catchment

Researchers compared microplastic occurrence in drinking water produced by two treatment plants using different technologies, finding that treatment design significantly affected which and how many microplastics remained in finished water. The results highlight the importance of treatment technology in determining consumer exposure to microplastics in tap water.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
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

Reuse of Water Contaminated by Microplastics, the Effectiveness of Filtration Processes: A Review

This review evaluates filtration technologies for removing microplastics from water, finding that while treatment plants reduce microplastic counts effectively, large discharge volumes still release substantial quantities into the environment.

2022 Energies 23 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

Microplastics in contaminated water : comparison of methods of analysis and treatment

This comprehensive review compared methods for analyzing microplastics in water—including spectroscopy, microscopy, and filtration techniques—and evaluated treatment approaches for removing MPs from wastewater, synthesizing findings across global studies on occurrence patterns and remediation effectiveness.

2025 Theseus (Ammattikorkeakoulujen)
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

Evaluation of the Presence of Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants: Development and Verification of Strategies for Their Quantification and Removal in Aqueous Streams

Researchers evaluated microplastic presence in wastewater treatment plants and developed a pilot capture system capable of detecting, quantifying, and removing microplastic particles from water. The study found that conventional treatment processes are insufficient for complete microplastic removal, highlighting the need for dedicated technologies to address this gap in water treatment infrastructure.

2025 Sustainability 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic removal across ten drinking water treatment facilities and distribution systems

Researchers characterized microplastic removal across ten drinking water treatment facilities and found that conventional municipal treatment achieved greater than 97.5% removal, primarily through granular media filtration or ultrafiltration. Untreated source waters contained between approximately 1,200 and 7,200 microplastic particles per liter, with polypropylene, polyethylene, and polyamide being the most common types. The findings provide valuable data on microplastic exposure through drinking water and the effectiveness of existing treatment processes.

2025 npj Clean Water 1 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

A systematic review on the occurrence and removal of microplastics during municipal wastewater treatment plants

This systematic review analyzed 54 wastewater treatment plants across 25 studies to determine how effectively they remove microplastics. The findings show an average removal rate of about 88%, but the remaining 12% passes through into waterways. This matters because the microplastics that escape treatment plants end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans, eventually entering our drinking water and food supply.

2024 Environmental Engineering Research 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Distribution and occurrence of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants

Researchers investigated microplastic distribution in three industrial wastewater treatment plants in Vietnam, finding average removal efficiencies of only 21-26%, with billions of microplastic particles discharged daily into receiving waters from the largest plant.

2022 Environmental Technology & Innovation 119 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

Occurrence and fate of microplastics at two different drinking water treatment plants within a river catchment

Researchers investigated the occurrence and removal of microplastics at two drinking water treatment plants located on the same river in the Czech Republic. The study found that microplastics were present in raw water at both facilities and that treatment processes reduced but did not fully eliminate microplastic contamination, with removal efficiency varying by treatment technology.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 240 citations
Article Tier 2

Identification, Quantification, and Evaluation of Microplastics Removal Efficiency in a Water Treatment Plant (A Case Study in Iran)

Researchers investigated microplastic occurrence and removal efficiency across treatment stages of a drinking water treatment plant in Iran, finding an influent concentration of 1597.7 MPs/L with an overall removal efficiency of 83.7%, yet still discharging an estimated 2.25 x 10^11 MPs daily into the distribution system, with PP, PE, and PET as the dominant polymers.

2022 Air Soil and Water Research 14 citations