Within the theme of plastics in the environment, the REPLAWA project investigates questions of water resource protection in connection with wastewater treatment. The project will investigate and quantitatively assess points of entry into bodies of water via treatment plants, storm water drainage, and combined sewer overflows and sewage sludge as the designated collector for all pollutants contained in wastewater. It will test and rate various practical methods of reducing and eliminating entry of plastic into waterways during sewage treatment. Based on the results of these investigations and of assessments of international regulatory approaches in this field, the project will derive strategies for reducing plastic release into waterways from sewage treatment and for sensitising policymakers as well as plant operators to this problem.
As part of the REPLAWA project, the Institute of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering will develop analytical methods for detecting microplastic particles in sewage sludge. Subsequently cumulative loading of microplastics of full scale wastewater treatment plants will be evaluated and balanced above all in the sludge treatment chain.
Based on these results the input of microplastics into nature as a consequence of agricultural sludge reuse and reuse of treated wastewater on irrigation fields will be investigated and evaluated. Additionally the research team will test with the help of spiked sludge samples in half-scale pilot plants, whether sludge digestion and specialized filtration technologies are able to reduce the input of microplastics into the environment from wastewater and sludge treatment.
