Microplastic removal from urban stormwater: current treatments and research gaps
Abstract
Stormwater is a major contributor to microplastic (MP) pollution in the aquatic environment. Although MPs are associated with many toxicological effects, their levels in stormwater are not regulated. This review compared the effectiveness of different MP removal technologies from stormwater runoff and examined the performance of typical stormwater treatment systems for MP removal to assess possible MP pollution control via stormwater management. Bioretention and filtration systems performed similarly with 84-96% MP removal efficiencies. Despite the limited number of studies that focused on wetlands and retention ponds, preliminary data suggested potential for MP removal with efficiencies of 28-55% and 85-99%, respectively. Despite the higher efficiency of bioretention and filtration systems, their removal efficiency of fibrous MPs was not optimal. Furthermore, wetlands were less effective in removing MPs than retention ponds, although the limited data might lead to an inaccurate representation of typical performances. Therefore, more research is required to arrive at definitive conclusions and to investigate alternative treatment options, such as ballasted sand flocculation, flotation, and biological degradation, and evaluate the effectiveness of bioretention and filtration for MPs <100 μm.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The lower microplastic removal in constructed wetlands may be due to reliance on particle settling or limited filtration by design.
“which may be due to the reliance on particle settling or limited filtration by design (Stang et al., 2022).”
From Review of emerging contaminants in green stormwater infrastructure: antibiotic resistance genes, microplastics, tire wear particles, PFAS, and temperature (2024) · cites this paper as Stang et al., 2022
Bioretention systems remove between 84% and 90% of microplastics from stormwater influent.
“bioretention systems have shown to remove between (84 % -90 %) of microplastics from stormwater influent (Gilbreath et al., 2019; Smyth et al., 2021; Stang et al., 2022)”
From Review of emerging contaminants in green stormwater infrastructure: antibiotic resistance genes, microplastics, tire wear particles, PFAS, and temperature (2024) · cites this paper as Stang et al., 2022
Practices that rely on settling are not ideal for removing fibrous microplastics and other low-density microplastics due to particle buoyancy affecting washout tendencies.
“practices that rely on settling are not ideal for removing fibrous microplastics and other low-density microplastics due to particle buoyancy affecting washout tendencies (Stang et al., 2022).”
From Review of emerging contaminants in green stormwater infrastructure: antibiotic resistance genes, microplastics, tire wear particles, PFAS, and temperature (2024) · cites this paper as Stang et al., 2022
Constructed wetlands remove only 55% of microplastics.
“constructed wetlands, which rely heavily on settling of contaminants, have been shown to remove only 55 % of microplastics, which may be due to the reliance on particle settling or limited filtration by design (Stang et al., 2022).”
From Review of emerging contaminants in green stormwater infrastructure: antibiotic resistance genes, microplastics, tire wear particles, PFAS, and temperature (2024) · cites this paper as Stang et al., 2022
Tire wear particles and microplastics have densities close to that of water, which makes them buoyant.
“This is because tire wear particles and microplastics have densities close to that of water which makes them buoyant (Stang et al., 2022).”
From Review of emerging contaminants in green stormwater infrastructure: antibiotic resistance genes, microplastics, tire wear particles, PFAS, and temperature (2024) · cites this paper as Stang et al., 2022
Cites
Plastics and microplastics in the oceans: From emerging pollutants to emerged threat
Avio, C. G., Gorbi, S., & Regoli, F. (2017) · Marine Environmental Research · doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2016.05.012 · Cited by 1,248 · see citing works
(Nano)plastics in the environment - Sources, fates and effects
da Costa, J. P., Santos, P. S. M., Duarte, A. C., & Rocha-Santos, T. (2016) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.05.041 · Cited by 1,139 · see citing works
Microplastics entering northwestern Lake Ontario are diverse and linked to urban sources
Grbić, J., Helm, P., Athey, S., & Rochman, C. M. (2020) · Water Research · doi:10.1016/j.watres.2020.115623 · Cited by 407 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Mayer, P. M., Moran, K. D., Miller, E. L., Brander, S. M., Harper, S., Garcia-Jaramillo, M., Carrasco-Navarro, V., Ho, K. T., Burgess, R. M., Thornton Hampton, L. M., et al. (2024) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171153 · Cited by 267 · see citing works
Bodus, B., O'Malley, K., Dieter, G., Gunawardana, C., & McDonald, W. (2024) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.167195 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
- Authors
- Stang, C., Mohamed, B. A., & Li, L. Y.
- Venue
- Journal of Environmental Management
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-09
- Volume
- 317
- Pages
- 115510
- ISSN
- 0301-4797
- Cited by
- 75
- References
- 3
- Language
- en
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
