Seeing as how the interviewed facilities tend to employ treatment up to the secondary level, they should plan for implementing standard- ized microfiltration or tertiary treatment to catch these microplastics that are likely to escape the current treatment process. Therefore, microplastics rinsed off consumers' faces are highly likely to enter wastewater stream, most of which is diverted directly to the ocean.
A previous study found that the largest recorded abundance and mass of plastic found in the surface layer of the Pacific Ocean was 334,271 pieces/km2 and 5114 g/km , respectively. Plankton abundance was approximately five times higher than that of plastic, but the mass of plastic was approximately five times higher than that of plastic, but the mass of plastic was approximately six times that of plankton. (Moore et al.2001)