Papers

61,005 results
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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

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

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

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
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
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

Circulation of microplastics in a municipal wastewater treatment plant with multiphase activated sludge

Researchers tracked the circulation of microplastics through a municipal wastewater treatment plant, from raw wastewater through sludge processing. They found that most microplastics accumulated in sewage sludge at high concentrations, and that leachate from sludge treatment recycled microplastics back into the treatment process. The study highlights how wastewater treatment plants can inadvertently redistribute microplastics rather than fully removing them from the waste stream.

2024 Desalination and Water Treatment 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in real wastewater treatment schemes: Comparative assessment and relevant inhibition effects on anaerobic processes

Researchers studied the occurrence and removal of microplastics through different stages of a wastewater treatment plant in Central Italy. They found that while treatment processes removed a substantial portion of incoming microplastics, significant numbers still passed into the effluent, and microplastics also inhibited anaerobic digestion processes used for sludge treatment. The study highlights that wastewater treatment plants are both important barriers against and inadvertent sources of microplastic pollution in receiving waters.

2020 Chemosphere 129 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

Identification and Analysis of Plastic Microparticles in the Inlet and Outlet of the Wastewater Treatment Plant and Investigation of the Relationship between Different Seasons of the Year with the Amount of Production and Emission of Particles

Researchers identified and characterized microplastics at the inlet and outlet of a wastewater treatment plant across different seasons, finding that conventional treatment fails to fully remove microplastics and that particle concentrations and types varied with seasonal changes.

2022 Advances in Materials Science and Engineering 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Transport and fate of microplastic particles in wastewater treatment plants

Researchers tracked microplastic particles through multiple stages of a wastewater treatment plant, finding that particles were concentrated in sludge but that a fraction passed through each treatment stage and remained in the final effluent.

2016 Water Research 1704 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Wastewater Treatment Plants—A Review

This review examines the role of wastewater treatment plants in retaining microplastics before they enter the environment. Studies show that no wastewater treatment method achieves complete microplastic removal, making treatment plants themselves point sources of microplastic discharge into aquatic environments. The review also discusses concerns about microplastic-laden sewage sludge being applied to agricultural land.

2020 Journal of Water Resource and Protection 161 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Abundance and Distribution in a Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bangladesh

Researchers investigated the abundance and distribution of microplastics in the Pagla Sewage Water Treatment Plant in Bangladesh, examining influent, effluent, and sludge to assess the facility as a potential source of microplastic pollution across multiple environmental compartments. The study found microplastics present throughout the treatment process, highlighting wastewater treatment plants as under-studied vectors of microplastic dispersal.

2022 ISEE Conference Abstracts 1 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

Understanding microplastic presence in different wastewater treatment processes: Removal efficiency and source identification

Researchers tracked microplastic removal across different treatment stages at two wastewater treatment plants and found overall removal rates of 90% and 97%. They discovered that population density in the served area was a bigger driver of influent microplastic levels than sewage volume, and that activated sludge served as the primary trap for captured particles. The study identified laundry washing and daily consumer products as the main sources of microplastics entering the treatment plants.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Fate of microplastics in wastewater treatment plants and their environmental dispersion with effluent and sludge

Researchers tracked microplastics through a wastewater treatment plant and found 12 different polymer types in effluents and sludge, with smaller particles (25–104 μm) most abundant and fibres displaying lower sizes than fragments. The study demonstrates that WWTPs do not fully remove microplastics and that processed sludge marketed as soil amendment carries plastic contamination.

2019 Environmental Pollution 589 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
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution is widely detected in US municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent

Researchers conducted a wide survey of US municipal wastewater treatment plants and found microplastics widely present in effluent, confirming that conventional treatment does not fully remove microplastics and that treatment plants are ongoing sources of environmental contamination.

2016 Environmental Pollution 1124 citations
Article Tier 2

Screening of microplastic particles in and down-stream a wastewater treatment plant

This Swedish environmental screening study examined microplastic inputs from a wastewater treatment plant in Lysekil to the sea, finding that significant numbers of particles above 300 micrometers were present in both influent and effluent. The study provides early national-level data on wastewater as a pathway for plastic to reach the marine environment.

2014 KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) 312 citations
Article Tier 2

Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) as a Source of Microplastics in the Aquatic Environment

Researchers investigated wastewater treatment works as a source of microplastics in aquatic environments, finding that effluent discharges contribute measurable quantities of microplastics to receiving rivers despite treatment, with concentrations varying by treatment type.

2016 Environmental Science & Technology 1966 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

Identification and quantification of microplastics in wastewater treatment plant effluent: Investigation of the fate and biological effects

This study identified and quantified microplastics in wastewater treatment plant effluents and sludge, finding particles in all samples with fibers being the dominant type. The research contributes to understanding how much microplastic reaches surface waters via wastewater discharge and how much is captured in sludge that is subsequently applied to agricultural land.

2018 Griffith Research Online (Griffith University, Queensland, Australia) 4 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

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