Europe has rewritten its environmental law by requiring pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies to pay for removing invisible chemicals from wastewater. The revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, in force since January 2025, extends mandatory sewage treatment to smaller towns, mandates nutrient removal, sets energy-neutrality targets for 2045, and introduces quaternary treatment to remove micropollutants. Quaternary treatment is a performance standard requiring 80% removal of indicator micropollutants. Three technologies compete: ozonation at moderate cost, activated carbon operationally simpler, and membranes capturing almost everything but expensive. Rollout is staged: 20% of large plants…
Read MoreEurope Rewrites Its Environmental Law And Sends The Polluter The Bill
