Chinese researchers have discovered that more than 60 percent of microplastics can be removed from wastewater, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The researchers from the CAS Wuhan Botanical Garden researched the removal of microplastics in a sewage treatment plant at Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province.
They found that 64.4 percent of microplastics in wastewater can be disposed of, and the removed microplastics were mostly transferred to and stored in sludge. This study was published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.
Fiber and fragments were the main microplastics particles found at wastewater sampling sites.
The percentage of larger microplastics in the effluent wastewater was reduced compared to that in the influent wastewater due to decomposition during the flow of wastewater and sedimentation becoming sludge.
Polyamide, or nylon, was found to be the main plastic component in wastewater at 54.8 percent, indicating that the microplastic particles may primarily originate from the wastewater discharged by washing clothes and polymer manufacturing and processing industries.
The deepest part of the world's ocean and its hadal bottom waters have been polluted by microplastics, according to previous reports.
Microplastics with a diameter smaller than five millimeters have severely influenced aquatic organisms. (Xinhua)
High concentration of microplastics has irremediable negative impacts on marine invertebrates such as slipper limpets, according to a study by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The findings show that when slipper limpets were exposed to high concentration of microplastics during their larval stage, the growth of this pollution-tolerant species significantly slowed down, and they would not resume their original growth rates even after the removal of microbeads from their surroundings.
Researchers from the Wuhan Botanical Garden conducted a detailed investigation of the microplastics (MPs) in and out of water and sludge from two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the urban and suburban areas of Wuhan. By comparing the occurrence and removal of MPs in two WWTPs in Wuhan city, the characteristics of MPs in toothpaste, facial cleanser and laundry wastewater were clarified in order to evaluate the potential sources of MPs in urban wastewater.
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