University scientists at the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center are studying wastewater treatment plants to analyze the microplastics and per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances that make up the liquid waste in the environment.
The Hazardous Waste Research Fund, an initiative started by the ISTC, dedicates its money to aid projects involving problems like waste management and water conservation. The initiative holds the responsibility of funding projects such as this one.
John Scott, senior analytical chemist at the ISTC, is the premier scientist on the project and hopes to find a way to limit the amount of waste produced by wastewater treatment facilities.
PFAS are chemicals resistant to heat, water and oil found in products like clothes, carpets and cooking ware. These chemicals, along with microplastics, are present everywhere. Normally, wastewater treatment plants convert these chemicals into biosolids, a product of these plants. However, Scott’s team wants to get rid of these chemicals entirely.
The team seeks to implement these wastewater treatment plants to compare the situation in other environments. This was done by looking at two waste streams from different environments and comparing the overall output of waste removed.
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“We wanted to look at how much is coming in through the wastewater influence … and then look at the outputs of wastewater treatment plants, which is wastewater effluent,” Scott said. “Wastewater treatment plants do a good job of removing both of these contaminants from the water.”
While the treatment plants separating the waste from the liquid is a much-needed improvement, the chemicals are still present in the biosolids and will be released back into the environment.
“They’re removing it from the water, which is good,” Scott said. “But really, what we either need to do is address it in the biosolids stage … or somehow treat it further upstream, like at the landfill leachate stage or at the wastewater influence stage.”
Although there is no way to get rid of the contaminants entirely, Scott advises the public to be more mindful of the products they purchase to minimize the amount of PFAS and microplastics contaminating the environment.
“I think people need to really think twice about what they’re using and the products they use and try to find some way that they could cut down,” Scott said. “When I go grocery shopping, I try to avoid plastic because I try to think about the things that I’m buying and how they can be recycled.”
