Use of recycled single-use plastics as bio-carrier for wastewater treatment

Single-use plastic waste poses significant environmental challenges, particularly through microplastic pollution
in aquatic ecosystems. In this study, a bio-carrier was fabricated from recycled single-use plastic waste, and its
performance was evaluated in a laboratory-scale moving bed biofilm reactor combined with membrane filtration
(MBBR-MBR) for treatment of wastewater coming from aquatic product processing factory. The recycled carriers
exhibited physical properties suitable for biofilm growth and achieved treatment efficiencies comparable to
commercial K3 media, effectively reducing COD, BOD5, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus to meet the Vietnamese
QCVN 11-MT:2015 level-A standard. These findings indicate that use of recycled plastic bio-carriers
offers a win-win solution both in terms of sustainable approach for wastewater treatment as well as minimizing
this plastic waste.