Phthalates and bisphenols in Australian wastewater and trade waste: understanding trends and sources

Phthalates and bisphenols are chemicals that are used in the production of plastics and a variety of other items. These chemicals have been reported in influent, effluent and trade waste from all around the world, and can potentially cause environmental harm through endocrine disruption. This project began with a large dataset of pooled samples analysed for a report for the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment completed in 2021, quantifying these chemicals across 22 sites around Australia. From this dataset, spatial trends for phthalates and bisphenols in influent for 2019 were explored to propose a baseline release of these chemicals in Australia from diffuse sources. This part of the project also focussed on pools that fell above this baseline and some phthalates and bisphenols were categorised as being point-source dominant and others as diffuse-source dominant. This dataset was also used to explore these chemicals in influent over time for two sites, from 2010-2020 as well as effluent that was released across the 22 sites in 2019. These influent and effluent concentrations were then put in the context of globally reported concentrations of these chemicals in the literature.  Finally, a method was developed and validated to examine bisphenols A, F and S in trade waste. Five of the initial industry pools were over the limit of quantification for these chemicals, and these pools are currently being broken down to further explore these sources. Overall, this project identifies the phthalates and bisphenols present in Australian influent and effluent, puts their concentrations in a global context and will highlight which industries are contributing bisphenol A, S and F to sewerage.

Please note this is a PhD Progress Review presentation by Bel Moore.