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Environmental Fate, Behavior, and Risk Management Approaches of Nanoplastics in the Environment
Summary
Researchers reviewed the environmental fate, behavior, and risk management of nanoplastics, which are plastic particles smaller than one micrometer. The study suggests that nanoplastics may pose greater environmental and health risks than larger microplastics due to their nanoscale properties, though significant knowledge gaps remain about their transport, transformation, and long-term ecological effects.
Microplastics (MPs) or nanoplastics (NPs) are the global pollutants that are appearing and garnering enormous attention owing to their probable threat to the ecosystem via their accumulation and persistence. The creation of microplastics (microplastics, 1–5 mm) and nanoplastics from larger plastic waste is caused by photochemical oxidation, mechanical abrasion, and biological degradation (nanoplastics, 1–1000 nm). Due to their distinct physiochemical nanoscale features, NPs may be more hazardous and dangerous than MPs. The fate of NPs in the environment, their impact on ecosystems, and potential hazards have, however, received little attention. Through a thorough bibliometric study, this chapter provides a detailed summary of the present research situation of NPs. Since its start in 2004 until 2022, we performed an extensive search of the Web of Science Core Collection scientific database. The findings revealed that since 2014, there has been a considerable increase in the number of papers on NPs. This chapter offers a critical review of the existing situation with a focus on environmental behavior, the fate of nanoplastics in the environment and their consequent ecological toxicity, and risk management strategies. More research is concentrated on the entire ecosystem, including freshwater, ocean, groundwater, soil, and air. Additionally, more efforts have been made to examine the aging and aggregation of NPs under environmentally relevant settings in order to completely understand the sources. Finally, the current challenges and future perspectives of NP research are discussed. This chapter will be beneficial to investigate the application of the nexus approach in the incorporated system management of water, soil, and waste systems. It will help researchers and the industrial sector to better understand the latest environmental connection between environmental resources such as water, soil, and waste to deal with ecological sustainability.