Microplastic distributions in a domestic wastewater treatment plant: Removal efficiency, seasonal variation and influence of sampling technique.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) serve as an important route of microplastics (MPs) to the environment. Therefore, more effective MPs sampling and detection methodologies, as well as a better understanding of their influence on MPs occurrence and distributions in WWTP effluents, are needed for better removal and control. In this work, the efficiency of a municipal WWTP to remove MPs was assessed by collecting samples from raw to tertiary effluent during a 12-month sampling campaign (season-based) using different sampling methods (containers, 24-h composite and large grab samples). MPs retrieved from different treatment units within the WWTP were identified and quantified using plastic/non-plastic staining followed by optical microscopy, SEM and μ-Raman microscopy. Overall, the mean removal efficiency of MPs in the WWTP was 97%, with most MPs removed by the secondary stage and a mean effluent concentration of 1.97 MPs L

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Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.