Potential Environmental Contamination by Microplastics

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs), an emerging potential environmental contaminant which have been produced as a result of increased manufacturing and consumption of plastic goods in our environment. These MPs size range between 0.1 μm to 5 mm and generated via primary and secondary sources. The primary ones are produced in the microplastics size range like microbeads, microfibers, and plastic pellets, whereas secondary MPs are produced as a result of the fragmentation of bigger plastic particles, which eventually invade in the aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric environments. MPs has been increasing extensively in the environment causing great threat globally, and gained research attention over the decades. These MPs are reportedly classified as omnipresent contaminant, and have been widely observed in soil, air and particularly in water or aquatic environment. The health of the environment and living things is negatively impacted by the rising level of MPs in the natural ecosystem. Due to their high durability, synthetic nature, and slow rate of degradation, these microplastics provide a significant threat to the environment. It accumulates in water, soil, and air and eventually it is consumed by the living organisms such as microbes, plants, animals including humans which can lead to alter the normal metabolic activities of the organisms. These MPs can interact with other organic pollutants, pathogenic microbes, heavy metals, toxic additives, etc., which impose the risk of other emerging chemical contaminants in the environment. This chapter is an effort to present current understanding of MPs contamination in aquatic, terrestrial and atmospheric environment, and the environmental effects of these contaminants, its interaction with other pollutant, and MPs effects on living organisms, its fate and transport and future prospects in detail by reviewing available scientific literature and data. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.