Support for Collaborative Forum on Microplastics Research

Microplastics—tiny plastic particles from sources including synthetic textiles, tire wear, and degraded packaging—have been detected worldwide in fresh water, groundwater, drinking water, wastewater, and bottled water. Microplastics in water and wastewater systems are an emerging contaminant of public concern and are receiving increasing media attention due to their potential human health and ecological effects and their ability to carry contaminants like organics, heavy metals, and pathogens. However, regulators and utilities do not have a clear path forward because current data are insufficient to understand where and in what forms microplastics occur in water media, how they impact human health and the aquatic environment, and what technologies could be deployed to sample, analyze, and treat water. The water sector has lacked a structured, collaborative approach to build institutional knowledge and guide future microplastics research.

ERG helped the Water Research Foundation develop and lead a forum—the Collaborative Forum on Microplastics Research—to strengthen communication among stakeholders and identify opportunities for future collaboration. Hosted at American Water’s headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, the forum brought together representatives from drinking water and wastewater utilities, state regulatory agencies, universities, and consulting firms, whose expertise spanned research, laboratory work, engineering, operations, management, and policy. To help ensure that participants shared a baseline understanding, ERG conducted a literature review and prepared a summary prior to the forum that described the current state of the science across the forum’s six key topic areas: occurrence, sampling, toxicology and health effects, analysis, treatment, and the regulatory landscape. At the forum, experts presented a comprehensive overview of the current state of microplastics science and research, and ERG’s facilitator guided each session to foster candid discussion that focused on identifying pressing microplastics research needs across the six topic areas. ERG subsequently developed a forum summary report, published by WRF, that synthesizes the proceedings and provides actionable insights and priorities to inform future microplastics research and utility practices.