Every year World Wetlands Day is celebrated on the 2 February to raise the profile of the value of wetlands in all their forms. In the run up to World Wetlands Day in 2023, the Global Water Forum is running several stories relating to wetlands. Here we focus on constructed wetlands. Constructed wetlands in urban spaces provide many of the features of natural wetlands, including the provision of habitat and water treatment. In recent years it’s been observed that constructed wetlands may be providing a valuable service of filtering out microplastics. Hsuan-Cheng Lu and colleagues from the Australian Rivers Institute investigated this by sampling five constructed wetlands and analysing the microplastics found. Here he discusses what they found.

Read more here.