Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment and their removal from wastewater through constructed wetlands

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are emerging organic contaminants that are continuously introduced into the environment due to their regular and widespread consumption by human beings. Their sources and fate in the aquatic environment are multiple and depend on the particular compound. Conventional wastewater treatment plants constitute the major source of these contaminants in the environment due to their incomplete removal by unspecific treatment methods. While advanced treatment technologies are available to treat these substances, their use is oftentimes not economically justified under the current concept of wastewater treatment. In this context, constructed wetlands represent an appropriate low-cost, energy-efficient, and easy-to-operate technology to treat wastewater, which are able to achieve a very high removal of these substances due to the vast number of biotic and abiotic processes that occur within these units, especially when different wetland types are used