Anything that is flushed or goes down a drain travels through pipes and sewer systems to a wastewater treatment plant. First, it undergoes physical separation of large objects, then biological treatment where bacteria chew up the organic material. Finally, the treated water is released into a nearby river. This treatment method has worked for the last century, but what is in our wastewater has changed significantly in the last several decades. This fact has created a BIG problem. Traditional treatment methods are designed to only break down organic waste (things made out of natural materials), but our wastewater today contains lots of chemical micropollutants that wastewater treatment plants can't break down and remove. These micropollutants come from the soaps and lotions we use, microplastics in our clothing, our cleaning products and the chemicals our body releases when we take medications.
Since current wastewater treatment methods aren't designed to break down and remove micropollutants, these chemicals just pass through the treatment plant and are released back into the rivers with the treated wastewater. This process pollutes rivers and streams, making aquatic life sick and causing a lot of damage to the environment. My environmental engineering research at the University of Wollongong in Australia is focused on tackling this problem. I work with other researchers to design an advanced wastewater treatment process to break down and remove micropollutants from wastewater.
