Wastewater Discharge Transports Riverine Microplastics over Long Distances

• Published in: Environmental science & technology Vol. 58; no. 34; pp. 15147 - 15158
• Main Authors: Chen, Cai, Cowger, Win, Nava, Veronica, van Emmerik, Tim H. M., Leoni, Barbara, Guo, Zhao-feng, Liu, Dong, He, Yu-qin, Xu, Yao-yang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 30.07.2024
• Subjects: Discharge; Environmental factors; Microplastics; Plastic debris; Plastic pollution; pollution; riparian areas; River basin development; River basins; Rivers; technology; wastewater; Wastewater discharges; Wastewater treatment; Wastewater treatment plants; Water pollution; watersheds; Waterways; Yangtze River; Yangtze River; microplastics; wastewater discharge; spatial dependence; the Yangtze River Basin; basin scale; upstream boundary
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851; 1520-5851
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c02255

Wastewater discharge from wastewater treatment plants continuously pumps microplastics into rivers, yet their transport distances within these waterways remain unknown. Herein, we developed a conceptual framework by synthesizing the microplastic data from the Yangtze River Basin to evaluate its transport distances, quantifying a significant spatial dependence between large-scale wastewater discharge and riverine microplastics ( < 0.05). The presence of microplastics at a specific sampling site could be attributed to wastewater discharge within a large-scale range spanning >1000 km upstream, encompassing a substantial portion equivalent to one-third of the Yangtze River Basin. The dominance analysis indicated that the contribution of wastewater discharge in rivers with higher discharge (>100 m /s) to riverine microplastic pollution exceeded 65% within the Yangtze River Basin. The spatial dependence framework of riverine microplastics on wastewater discharge advances our prior understanding of the prevention and control of riverine microplastics by demonstrating that such pollution is not limited to nearby environmental factors.