The increasing abundance of microplastics (MPs) in rivers and oceans continues to face major challenges. In particular, MPs with smaller particle sizes are difficult to identify and quantify when they reach the environment. This study investigated four typical wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), including urban WWTPs and industrial WWTP with different treatment technologies. The results showed that the average abundance of MPs in the influent and effluent was 538.67 ± 22.05 n/L to 1290 ± 65.26 n/L and 20.44 ± 1.19 n/L to 40.67 ± 11.12 n/L. The primary and secondary treatment processes can effectively remove MPs between 51.04% and 72.82% from wastewater. After tertiary treatments, the removal efficiency was further increased to more than 90%. The study aims to explore the removal mechanism of MPs in each stage of the wastewater treatment process and to reveal the fate of MPs in WWTPs, and help to understand their future monitoring to optimize the wastewater treatment process.
Keywords: Microplastics (MPs); Pollution characteristics; Removal efficiency; Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs); Wastewater treatment process.
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