Urban wastewater treatment plants are important sinks and sources of emerging contaminants, which are a crucial barrier to interrupt its discharge into the aquatic environment. To provide ideas for the prevention and control of emerging contaminants in urban wastewater treatment plants and help achieve the construction of a healthy China, this paper focuses on the categories of emerging contaminants in urban wastewater. We argue that the concentrations of emerging contaminants in wastewater from different districts show significant geographical characteristics, which are closely related to regional environmental conditions, population density, wastewater sources, socio-economic conditions and industrial layout. We analyze the migration and transformation patterns of emerging contaminants in various units of urban wastewater treatment plants. The results indicate that removal of emerging contaminants from wastewater treatment plants is influenced by critical factors including wastewater treatment processes and emerging contaminants categories. We also illustrate that removal of emerging contaminants from urban wastewater treatment plants is currently challenged by the lack of regulations and standards, outdated monitoring technologies, hard-to-construct risk assessment systems, and ineffective removal technologies. We propose appropriate prevention and control strategies to address these challenges.

Sludge is an important "sink" of emerging pollutants and the ecological risk caused by emerging pollutants is the key to the resource utilization and safe disposal of sludge. This paper deals with the occurrence characteristics of emerging pollutants in urban sludge in China, summarizes the removal characteristics of emerging pollutants by sludge treatment and disposal, puts forward the shortcomings in the current situation to treat emerging pollutants in sludge, further condenses the key scientific problems still existing in the treatment of emerging pollutants in sludge, and thus puts forward the prevention and control strategies. From the perspective of the existence level of various emerging pollutants in sludge, the detection rate of antibiotics is high, with a concentration of up to μg/g dw; concentrations of perfluorocarbons and endocrine disrupting agents are in the level of ng/g dw; the existence level of microplastics is generally high, with an abundance range of 1600.00~5640.00 /kg dw. Sludge anaerobic digestion and aerobic composting treatment technologies can effectively control and reduce the existence of emerging pollutants in sludge. The removal effects of different emerging pollutants are affected by the physical and chemical properties, bioavailability and other conditions of the pollutants themselves. Further research can be conducted on the removal paths and degradation mechanisms of a variety of emerging pollutants coexisting systems. The strategy of optimizing composting conditions and introducing specific microbial strains can be combined to improve the degradation efficiency of emerging pollutants, so as to obtain safer compost products. Land use is the final destination of sludge compost products. It is urgent to carry out ecological risk assessment of various emerging pollutants in the process of sludge land use and establish corresponding limit control standards, so as to provide a scientific basis for the safe use of sludge land.

Antibiotics have emerged as a significant contaminant, and gained increasing attention both domestically and internationally. In this study, the environmental risk management needs and the current handling situation of antibiotic fermentation residues are proposed to find out the key points and approaches to the management of antibiotic residue environmental pollution control that align with China's national conditions. To address long-term environmental risk management of antibiotic fermentation residues and effectively control the pollutants produced in the residues, three key strategies have been proposed. First, to conduct production information surveys and hazard screenings to continuously assess and clarify the risk situation including evaluating the risk of antibiotic resistance. Then, to support scientific research and the application of technology, enhance collaboration between antibiotic production enterprises and research institutions through an integrated approach of "industry-academia-research-application", develop specialized scientific projects, accelerate the development of monitoring and early warning methods, and promote the innovation and industrial application of technologies for harmless treatment and resource utilization. Last, to improve the risk evaluation methods for safe use of antibiotic fermentation residues, explore the mechanisms of resistance risk transmission through laboratory and field trials, and establish environmental safety evaluation methods for resource-based products, as well as management and long-term safety monitoring systems for the flow of resource-based products, to comprehensively promote the green transformation of the antibiotic industry and effective control of pollution at its source.

The YQ-BaP microbial community with Benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) as the sole carbon source was enriched from the sludge straw combined anaerobic sludge system. The effects of different environmental factors on the biodegradability of bacteria were studied by single factor experiment. The intermediate metabolites degraded by benzo[a]pyrene were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results of macrogene sequencing showed that the dominant genera of this bacterium were Pseudomonas and Methyloversatilis. After 14 days of culture, the degradation rate of 30 mg/L BaP was stable at 38.69%±6.24%, and the degradation effect of phenanthrene and pyrene was better. YQ-BaP showed strong degradation ability at pH=7 and 35~40℃. When the concentration of BaP was 20 mg/L, the degradation rate of BaP reached 46.89%. GC-MS analysis showed that phenanthrene, anthracene, naphthalene and other hydroxylation and methylation metabolites were produced during BaP degradation. The bacterial community has a strong ability to degrade BaP, which provides a theoretical basis for the remediation technology of PAHs pollution.