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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Micro- and Nanoplastic Pollution of Freshwater and Wastewater Treatment Systems
ClearMicro- and nanoplastic pollution in urban influenced aquatic environments: Sources, pathways, and remediation strategies
This review examines the sources, transport pathways, and environmental fate of microplastics and nanoplastics in urban aquatic environments, finding that wastewater treatment plants remove only 40–95% of microplastics with much lower efficiency for nanoplastics, making them a persistent source of aquatic contamination.
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.
Fate and transport of micro- and nanoplastics in graywater, fresh and marine water systems
This review chapter summarizes research on how micro- and nanoplastics move through graywater, freshwater, and marine water systems. The particles enter these systems from multiple sources — consumer products, wastewater, and plastic degradation — and are incompletely removed by conventional treatment. The review highlights the persistence and wide distribution of these particles as major challenges for water quality management.
Occurrence, Fate, and Treatment of Micro/Nano Plastics in Drinking Water Sources
This review examines the occurrence, fate, and treatment of micro- and nanoplastics in drinking water sources, covering how these particles enter water supplies and what treatment technologies exist to remove them. The authors note significant gaps in both detection methods and removal efficiency.
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.
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.
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.
Elimination of micro and nanoplastics in wastewater: technological advances and future perspectives
This work reviews technological advances and future perspectives for the elimination of micro- and nanoplastics from wastewater, synthesizing current approaches and their effectiveness across different treatment stages. The review highlights ongoing challenges in capturing the smallest plastic particles and identifies promising directions for next-generation treatment systems.
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.
Microplastics: Transport and removal at wastewater treatment plants
This book chapter reviews the transport and removal of microplastics at wastewater treatment plants, summarizing efficiency data across different treatment processes. Even high-performing plants release microplastics into water bodies, making treated effluent a significant ongoing source of environmental contamination.
Micro (nano) plastics in wastewater: A critical review on toxicity risk assessment, behaviour, environmental impact and challenges
Researchers reviewed the sources, detection methods, toxicity, environmental fate, and wastewater treatment options for micro- and nanoplastics, finding that nanoplastics are especially persistent and toxic due to their large surface area and ability to carry co-pollutants, and identifying key research gaps in quantification, degradation mechanisms, and sensor development.
Microplastics in wastewater treatment systems and receiving waters
This review covers how microplastics move through wastewater treatment plants and end up in receiving water bodies, noting that conventional treatment removes most but not all microplastics. The residual microplastics discharged into rivers and oceans represent a major ongoing input into aquatic ecosystems.
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.
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.
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.
Understanding the fate of nano-plastics in wastewater treatment plants and their removal using membrane processes
This review assessed what is known about the fate of nanoplastics in wastewater treatment plants, highlighting that conventional treatment processes are poorly suited to removing particles below 1 µm and that membrane-based processes show the most promise for nanoplastic removal.
Microplastic Pollution in the Environment
This review examines microplastic pollution across environmental compartments — treated and surface water, groundwater, drinking water, and wastewater treatment plants — synthesizing data on sources, concentrations, and fates of these persistent emerging contaminants.
Pollution to Solution: Understanding and Addressing Microplastic Contamination in the Environment
This review synthesizes current knowledge on how microplastics and nanoplastics are distributed across freshwater and marine environments, how they interact with and are taken up by aquatic organisms, and what removal technologies show the most promise. It covers the full lifecycle from macroplastic fragmentation to nano-scale particles, and surveys physical, chemical, and biological treatment methods. The review provides a useful overview for researchers and environmental managers looking to understand the scope of the microplastic problem and identify where interventions are most needed.
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.
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.
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.
State of the Art of Microplastic and Nanoplastic Pollution: Origin and Removal Methods
This review traces the origins of microplastic and nanoplastic pollution, examining their sources, environmental pathways, and removal methods across water, soil, and air, as well as their instantaneous and long-term effects on living organisms. The study emphasizes that despite recognition as a contaminant since 2004, micro- and nanoplastics remain poorly regulated globally.
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.
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.