Microplastic Pollution in the Environment

Microplastic pollution of the environment is a growing threat to agricultural production, marine and freshwater ecosystems, surface water, groundwater, plant growth, soil properties and human and animal well-being. The oxidation and reduction processes of these plastic materials are due to physical and biochemical activities in the environment. These two key processes lead to the establishment and presence of microplastic particles in substantial quantities in freshwater, marine, soil, surface and groundwater environments. Previous studies focused on microplastics in soils with particular attention to environmental, chemical, agricultural and health aspects, this chapter focuses on the influences of microplastic pollution on the geotechnical engineering perspective and other essential issues of the soils. In this study, over 65 journal articles over a period of 25 years were reviewed and discussed. In this review of journal articles, the degradation and existence of microplastics in the soils were assessed based on previous studies. The possible role of solid waste disposal techniques and facilities as sources for microplastics was deliberated with reference to their geotechnical characteristics, which addressed the hazard of the movement of microplastics from sanitary landfills to soils and other environments. It was concluded that the chapter broadens the knowledge on the ecotoxicity of microplastic particles on the soil, the importance of geotechnical properties of soil, the gut microbiota of terrestrial organisms and engineering as mitigation tools for microplastics were highlighted and several future significant studies and research areas, which involve geotechnical behaviour and properties of soil and engineering applications were suggested.