Microplastic sampling strategies in urban drainage systems for quantification of urban emissions based on transport pathways

Abstract Tracking waterborne microplastic (MP) in urban areas is a challenging task because of the various sources and transport pathways involved. Since MP occurs in low concentrations in most wastewater and stormwater streams, large sample volumes need to be captured, prepared, and carefully analyzed. The recent research in urban areas focused mainly on MP emissions at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), as obvious entry points into receiving waters. However, important transport pathways under wet‐weather conditions are yet not been investigated thoroughly. In addition, the lack of comprehensive and comparable sampling strategies complicated the attempts for a deeper understanding of occurrence and sources. The goal of this paper is to (i) introduce and describe sampling strategies for MP at different locations in a municipal catchment area under dry and wet‐weather conditions, (ii) quantify MP emissions from the entire catchment and two other smaller ones within the bigger catchment, and (iii) compare the emissions under dry and wet‐weather conditions. WWTP has a high removal rate of MP (>96%), with an estimated emission rate of 189 kg/a or 0.94 g/[population equivalents (PEQ · a)], and polyethylene (PE) as the most abundant MP. The specific dry‐weather emissions at a subcatchment were ≈30 g/(PEQ · a) higher than in the influent of WWTP with 23 g/(PEQ · a). Specific wet‐weather emissions from large sub‐catchment with higher traffic and population densities were 1952 g/(ha · a) higher than the emissions from smaller catchment (796 g/[ha · a]) with less population and traffic. The results suggest that wet‐weather transport pathways are likely responsible for 2–4 times more MP emissions into receiving waters compared to dry‐weather ones due to tire abrasion entered from streets through gullies. However, more investigations of wet‐weather MP need to be carried out considering additional catchment attributes and storm event characteristics.