Microplastics in Sewage Sludge Exploration and Detection (MISSED)

塑料制造和使用的指数增长已经成为一个威胁和迫在眉睫的环境污染物。在加拿大，每年有近1.76万亿微塑料（MP）颗粒进入污水处理厂（WWTPs），其去除率<1%，导致负面环境影响。同样，MPs（< 1µm的纳米塑料）的风化产物也会逃逸到水源中，造成严重的生态毒性影响。过去大多数关于MPs的研究主要集中在生态系统效应上，而忽略了污水处理厂的动态变化。拟议的“污水污泥中的微塑料探测和检测（missing）”将为污水处理厂中选定的MPs及其风化产物（WPs）开发可靠的检测方法。该项目将研究这些MPs在悬浮和附着生长系统中的机制行为，以开发风险评估模型。拟议的项目团队由国内和国际研究人员组成，他们具有多学科专业知识，包括化学、环境、化学、机械工程、生物学等。所产生的知识将由参与提案的不同利益攸关方调动，即市政当局、政府组织和非营利组织。培养大量高素质人才（博士后2人、博士4人、本科生10人）。该研究将解决多聚物的运输模式，并有助于动员指导方针，提高污水处理厂的效率，以消除多聚物并减轻生态影响。

The exponential rise in plastics manufacturing and usage has become a threatening and looming environmental contaminant. Nearly, 1.76 trillion microplastic (MP) particles enter wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) each year in Canada with <1% load removed, leading to negative environmental impact. Likewise, the weathered products of MPs (nanoplastics < 1 µm (NPs)) also escape to water sources with severe ecotoxicity impacts. Most of the past work on MPs has primarily focused on the ecosystem effects, ignoring the dynamics of WWTP. The proposed, "Microplastics in Sewage Sludge Exploration and Detection (MISSED) will develop reliable detection methods for selected MPs and its weathered products (WPs) in the WWTP. The project will study the mechanistic behaviour of these MPs in suspended and attached growth systems to develop risk assessment models. The proposed project team comprises national and international researchers with multidisciplinary expertise comprising chemistry, environmental, chemical, and mechanical engineering, biology, amongst others. The knowledge generated will be mobilized by different stakeholders, viz., municipalities, government organizations and not-for-profit organizations who are participants in the proposal. Significant numbers of highly qualified personnel (2 post-docs; 4 Ph. D.s and 10 undergraduates) will be trained. The study will address MP transport patterns and can help mobilize guidelines to increase the WWTP efficiency to eliminate MPs and mitigate the ecological impact.