Occurrence of Microplastics in Waste Sludge of Wastewater Treatment Plants: Comparison between Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) and Conventional Activated Sludge (CAS) Technologies

In this study, the presence of microplastics in the sludge of three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) was examined. The investigated WWTPs operated based on a conventional activated sludge (CAS) process, with (W1) or without (W2) primary clarification, and a membrane bioreactor process (MBR) (W3). The microplastics (MPs) concentration in the samples of W3 was approximately 81.1 ± 4.2 × 103 particles/kg dry sludge, whereas MPs concentrations in W1 and W2 were 46.0 ± 14.8 × 103 particles/kg dry sludge and 36.0 ± 5.2 × 103 particles/kg dry sludge, respectively. Moreover, MPs mainly consisted of fragments (66–68%) in the CAS plants, whereas the fractions of MPs shapes in the MBR sludge were more evenly distributed, although fiber (47%) was the most abundant fraction. Furthermore, samples from the MBR showed a greater diversity in MPs composition. Indeed, all the main polyesters (i.e., textile fibers and polyethylene terephthalate), polyolefins (i.e., polyethylene and polypropylene) and rubber (i.e., polybutadiene) were observed, whereas only polybutadiene, cellulose acetate and polyester were detected in the CAS plants. These findings confirmed that MPs from wastewater are transferred and concentrated in the waste sludge. This is a critical finding since sludge disposal could become a new pathway for microplastic release into the environment and because MPs might affect the fouling behavior of the membrane.