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Pretreatment Methods for Further Analysis of Microplastics in Wastewater and Sludge Samples

Abstract:

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are a significant source of microplastics (MPs) in both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Since WWTPs cannot retain the MPs completely, a fraction of these particles can reach rivers and oceans. Moreover, due to the high accumulation of MPs in sewage sludge, its use as biosolids may lead to the contamination of agricultural lands. In this way, the correct analysis of the MPs in the different streams of a WWTP is of paramount importance. Each type of sample (influent of WWTP, primary effluent, activated sludge and secondary effluent) must be separated and pretreated before analysis by methods that necessarily have to be different according to the sample characteristics, but until now no standardized procedures have been available. Thus, in this chapter pretreatments methods will be assessed critically to provide an overview of the methods that have been reported for WWTPs samples. Density separation and chemical digestion are techniques used to reduce the organic matter and the suspended solids content and consequently aid the posterior visual separation of MPs from the sample.