Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) as a Source of Microplastics in the Aquatic Environment
Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW) as a Source of Microplastics in the Aquatic Environment
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DOI：
10.1021/acs.est.5b05416
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发表时间：
2016-06-07
影响因子：
11.4
通讯作者：
Quinn, Brian
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Murphy, Fionn;Ewins, Ciaran;Quinn, Brian
从污水处理厂（WwTW）排放的城市污水被怀疑是微塑料（MP）对环境的重要贡献者，因为许多个人护理产品含有塑料微珠。在处理过程的不同阶段对二级WwTW（相当于650 000人）进行了微塑料采样，以确定MP在处理过程的哪个阶段被去除。流入物平均含有15.70（+/-5.23）MP.L-1。在最终流出物中，这降低至0.25（+/-0.04）MP.L-1，降低了98.41%。尽管有如此大的减少，我们计算出这个WwTW每天向接收水中释放6500万个微塑料。相当大比例的微塑料在油脂去除阶段积累并被去除（19.67（+/-4.51）MP/2.5 g），这项研究表明，尽管这种现代化的处理厂在处理如此大量的废水时，即使是少量的微塑料，也能有效地去除MP。每升废水释放的微塑料可能导致大量微塑料进入环境。这是第一项详细描述微塑料在废水处理过程中命运的研究。
Municipal effluent discharged from wastewater treatment works (WwTW) is suspected to be a significant contributor of microplastics (MP) to the environment as many personal care products contain plastic microbeads. A secondary WwTW (population equivalent 650 000) was sampled for microplastics at different stages of the treatment process to ascertain at what stage in the treatment process the MP are being removed. The influent contained on average 15.70 (+/-5.23) MP.L-1. This was reduced to 0.25 (+/-0.04) MP.L-1 in the final effluent, a decrease of 98.41%. Despite this large reduction we calculate that this WwTW is releasing 65 million microplastics into the receiving water every day. A significant proportion of the microplastic accumulated in and was removed during the grease removal stage (19.67 (+/-4.51) MP/2.5 g), it was only in the grease that the much publicised microbeads were found. This study shows that despite the efficient removal rates of MP achieved by this modern treatment plant when dealing with such a large volume of effluent even a modest amount of microplastics being released per liter of effluent could result in significant amounts of microplastics entering the environment. This is the first study to describe in detail the fate of microplastics during the wastewater treatment process.