Occurrence of microplastics in municipal sewage treatment plants: a review

• Main Authors: Hyun-Joong Kang, Hee-Jin Park, Oh-Kyung Kwon, Won-Seok Lee, Dong-Hwan Jeong, Byoung-Kyu Ju, Jung-Hwan Kwon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society of Environmental Helath and Toxicology 2018-09-01
• Series: Environmental Health and Toxicology
• Subjects: microplastic identification; sewage treatment plants (STPs); material type; shape; size distribution
• Online Access: http://www.e-eht.org/upload/pdf/eht-33-3-e2018013.pdf

Municipal sewage treatment plants (STPs) are thought to be important point sources of microplastics in freshwater systems and many peer-reviewed articles have been published on this issue since mid-2010s. In this review, we summarize existing literature on the occurrence of microplastics in STPs and experimental methods used for isolation and identification of microplastics. The number concentrations of microplastics in STP influents were 15.1-640 L-1, whereas those in the STP effluents were highly variable and ranged from not detectable to 65 L-1. For most of cases, conventional STPs are removing microplastics very effectively. Fragments and fibers are dominant shapes of microplastics. Thermoplastics (polyethylene and polypropylene) and polyester are the predominant materials recovered. Although further research is needed, size distribution of microplastics in STPs is likely to follow a power law, implying that different studies using different size cutoffs may be compared after establishing a power law relationship.