Microplastics under 5µm evade filtration
A pilot study of microplastics being released by a UK plastic recycling centre has found that pieces under 5µm are generally not removed by filtration.
The team from the University of Stratclyde, Scotland, and the Ocean Frontiers Institute in Nova Scotia, Canada, estimates that 59-1,184t of these smallest microplastics are discharged annually.
Their results, which were published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances, find that raw recycling water was estimated to contain microplastic counts between 5.97x106 – 1.12x108MPm-3.
The filtration was found to remove most microplastics over 5µm, with a high removal rate for pieces more than 40µm, but not for the smallest parts.
The researchers recommend that additional filtration is needed at recycling plans to remove smaller microplastics prior to wash discharges.
