Researchers turn water-treatment waste into a filter that removes up to 97.1% of microplastics

Representative Image (AI-generated) Microplastics are now found across aquatic environments, creating a difficult challenge for water-treatment systems that must remove tiny plastic particles without generating more waste. A new approach investigated in 2026 takes an unusual route: instead of treating water-treatment waste as something that simply needs to be discarded, researchers turned it into a material that could help filter microplastics from water. The idea links two environmental problems at once, waste generated during water treatment and persistent plastic pollution. In tests using real water rather than only laboratory-prepared samples, the resulting filter achieved removal efficiencies ranging from 86.9% to 97.1%, depending on the conditions and particles being treated. The findings suggest that material recovered from water-treatment processes could potentially be given a second use as part of a more circular approach to water purification.According to a study published in Water Research, researchers investigated the use of aluminum-based water-treatment residual (WTR), a material generated during the water-treatment process, as a low-cost filtering medium for micropla...