College of Environmental Sciences, Sichuan Agricultural University, 211 Huimin Road, Chengdu, 611130, China.
Chengdu Academy of Environmental Sciences, Fanglin Road, Chengdu, 610072, China.
Chemosphere. 2022 Jan;287(Pt 4):132357. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132357. Epub 2021 Sep 24.
Large amounts of microplastics can accumulate in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and sludge disposal is suspected to be a major source of microplastics pollution in the environment. It is therefore important to investigate the distribution of microplastics in the sludge of each processing unit of WWTPs. However, little information is available on this topic in China. Accordingly, in this study, the abundance and characteristics of microplastics in the sludge of two WWTPs in Chengdu were investigated. The abundance of microplastics in the sludge samples ranged from 44.4 n·kg to 750.0 n·kg. Microplastics were mainly divided into particles (32.16%), debris (28.14%) and fibers (17.08%) according to their shape, and the colors of the microplastics were mainly green (35.19%) and translucent (18.06%). The particle sizes were mainly larger than 1 mm in dimension. Polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene were the prevalent types of microplastics analyzed. Our results provide basic information for better understanding the characteristics of microplastics in sludge and for improving sludge treatment.
大量的微塑料可以在废水处理厂（WWTPs）中积累，而污泥处置被怀疑是环境中微塑料污染的主要来源。因此，调查 WWTP 各处理单元中污泥中微塑料的分布情况非常重要。然而，在中国，关于这一主题的信息很少。因此，在这项研究中，调查了成都两个 WWTP 中污泥中微塑料的丰度和特征。污泥样品中微塑料的丰度范围为 44.4 n·kg 至 750.0 n·kg。根据形状，微塑料主要分为颗粒（32.16%）、碎片（28.14%）和纤维（17.08%），微塑料的颜色主要为绿色（35.19%）和半透明（18.06%）。粒径主要大于 1 毫米。分析的微塑料主要类型为聚乙烯、聚丙烯和聚苯乙烯。我们的结果为更好地了解污泥中微塑料的特征和改善污泥处理提供了基础信息。
