Reuse of plastic waste as bio-carriers for domestic wastewater treatment – An approach towards circular economy

  • Do Hong Anh Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, 55 Giai Phong road, Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Tran Hoai Son Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, 55 Giai Phong road, Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Tran Thuy Anh Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, 55 Giai Phong road, Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Tran Thi Huyen Nga Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Science, Vietnam National University Hanoi, 334 Nguyen Trai street, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi, Vietnam
  • Dang Thi Thanh Huyen Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, 55 Giai Phong road, Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi, Vietnam
Keywords: plastic waste, bio-carriers, microorganism, nutrient removal, wastewater treatment

Abstract

With the rapid growth of economic development, the circular economy has been raised in many international
environmental and socio-economic conferences and forums nowadays. The recycling of plastic waste was one
of those aspects. This paper studied the potential of directly reusing plastic bottle caps as bio-carriers in moving
bed bioreactors without further waste processing. As the caps had lower surface areas than the commercial carriers, total bacteria communities on the commercial carriers (K3) were 3-4 times higher than those on the bottle caps at different counting magnitudes. Nevertheless, the bottle caps could accommodate similar nitrogen-based bacteria (ammonia-oxidizing bacteria - AOB and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria - NOB density), which promotes well for the nitrification and denitrification processes. The COD and N-NH4 removal efficiencies were 92% and 86% on average, respectively. The high pollutant removal capacity reveals the very promising potential of bottle caps as bio-carriers for domestic wastewater treatment, promoting waste reduction and treatment expenses and presenting an excellent example of economic circular.

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Published
25-09-2024
How to Cite
Hong Anh, D., Son, T. H., Anh, T. T., Huyen Nga, T. T., & Huyen, D. T. T. (2024). Reuse of plastic waste as bio-carriers for domestic wastewater treatment – An approach towards circular economy. Journal of Science and Technology in Civil Engineering (JSTCE) - HUCE, 18(3), 114–124. https://doi.org/10.31814/stce.huce2024-18(3)-09
Section
Research Papers