Research Finds Microplastics in Rivers Despite Treatment of Large Quantities

摘要

Thousands and perhaps millions of tiny shards of plastic that are less than 5 millimeters wide are entering urban rivers in Illinois every day after eluding capture at wastewater treatment plants, according to research by Chicago-based Loyola University. Released Feb. 24 by the American Geophysical Union, the unpublished findings by assistant professor Timothy Hoellein and his team show that wastewater treatment plants were a source of microplastics in 80 percent of the 10 urban rivers examined in northern Illinois, "regardless of the size of the river or the size and type of wastewater treatment plant." An aquatic ecologist by training, Hoellein estimates that between 15,000 and 4.5 million pieces of microplastics enter those rivers every day from each of the 10 wastewater treatment plants that treated the effluent prior to discharge. This is despite the fact that 90 percent of microplastics are being captured by wastewater treatment.