PubMed · 2026-03-11
Aquaculture wastewater carries both tiny plastic fragments and antibiotic drugs into waterways, and the two pollutants interact in ways that make each harder to remove. This review maps current cleanup technologies and calls for combined approaches that account for how microplastics and antibiotics affect each other during treatment.
Microplastics adsorb antibiotic molecules onto their surfaces, altering how far antibiotics travel and how easily they are captured during water treatment.
Antibiotics can compete with microplastics for reactive oxygen species and adsorption sites, reducing the effectiveness of treatments targeting either pollutant alone.
The co-presence of microplastics and antibiotics can change antibiotic hydrolysis rates and biotoxicity, influencing biodegradation — yet how the same interactions affect microplastic behavior remains largely unstudied.