Understanding plastic degradation and microplastic formation in the environment: A review

Microplastics, which are plastic debris with a particle diameter of less than 5 mm, have attracted growing attention in recent years. Its widespread distributions in a variety of habitats have urged scientists to understand deeper regarding their potential impact on the marine living resources. Most studies on microplastics hitherto are focused on the marine environment, and research on risk assessment methodology is still limited. To understand the distribution of microplastics in urban rivers, this study investigated river sediments in Shanghai, the largest urban area in China. Seven sites were sampled to ensure maximum coverage of the city's central districts, and a tidal flat was also included to compare with river samples. Density separation, microscopic inspection and μ-FT-IR analysis were conducted to analyze the characteristics of microplastics and the type of polymers. The average abundance of microplastics in six river sediment samples was 802 items per kilogram of dry weight. The abundance in rivers was one to two orders of magnitude higher than in the tidal flat. White microplastic spheres were most commonly distributed in river sediments. Seven types of microplastics were identified, of which polypropylene was the most prevailing polymers presented. The study then conducted risk assessment of microplastics in sediments based on the observed results, and proposed a framework of environmental risk assessment. After reviewing waste disposal related legislation and regulations in China, this study conclude that in situ data and legitimate estimations should be incorporated as part of the practice when developing environmental policies aiming to tackle microplastic pollution.

Microplastics in Freshwater River Sediments in Shanghai, China: A Case Study of Risk Assessment in Mega Cities

Are we underestimating the sources of microplastic pollution in terrestrial environment

Electrochemical wastewater and soil treatments are exciting set of technologies that has been well-studied over the recent years as one of the most-effective remediation techniques for the removal of hazardous pollutants from liquids effluents and soil. The main requirement of these technologies is electricity and their sustainability can be largely improved if they are powered by renewable energy sources. Likewise, this green energy powering can help to apply these technologies in remote areas, such as rural communities in developing countries, where no electricity grid is available. This review presents a comprehensive discussion on fundamental concepts and applications of renewable energy driven electrochemical technologies for treating hazardous pollutants in wastewater and contaminated soils. In the first section, the fundamentals of different electrochemical remediation technologies are presented, whereas the next two sections focused on the most applied technologies for powering these electrochemical devices: the solar photovoltaic (PV) (Section 3) and the wind turbines (Section 4). After that, the non-near future is faced with the study of the principles of biomass energy production and how bioelectrochemical systems are starting to be evaluated for powering electrochemical technologies (Section 5). Then, new approaches in the renewable energy driven electrochemical technologies such as triboelectric nanogenerators and photocatalytic fuel cells are described in Section 6. The last section focused on the challenges expected for the near future, describing the most promising storage system and evaluating the scale-up, environmental and economic concerns of the technologies studied in this work.

Renewable energies driven electrochemical wastewater/soil decontamination technologies: A critical review of fundamental concepts and applications

A review on removing antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes from wastewater by constructed wetlands: Performance and microbial response.

Occurrence of microplastics in landfill systems and their fate with landfill age.

Removal of microplastics from aqueous solutions by magnetic carbon nanotubes

Promotion of short-chain fatty acids production and fermented sludge properties via persulfate treatments with different activators: Performance and mechanisms

Microplastics act as vectors for antibiotic resistance genes in landfill leachate: The enhanced roles of the long-term aging process.

Distinct effects of hypochlorite types on the reduction of antibiotic resistance genes during waste activated sludge fermentation: Insights of bacterial community, cellular activity, and genetic expression

Yinglong Su

Papers

Occurrence of microplastics in landfill systems and their fate with landfill age.

Removal of microplastics from aqueous solutions by magnetic carbon nanotubes

Promotion of short-chain fatty acids production and fermented sludge properties via persulfate treatments with different activators: Performance and mechanisms

Microplastics act as vectors for antibiotic resistance genes in landfill leachate: The enhanced roles of the long-term aging process.

Distinct effects of hypochlorite types on the reduction of antibiotic resistance genes during waste activated sludge fermentation: Insights of bacterial community, cellular activity, and genetic expression