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Plastics: From Indisputable Benefits to Incontestable Environmental Issues
Original title: Plásticos: Dos Indiscutíveis Benefícios às Incontestáveis Questões Ambientais
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This Portuguese-language review examines plastics from their origins and societal benefits to the growing environmental concerns surrounding their disposal and waste. Researchers discuss both the visible environmental impacts of plastic litter and the less visible but equally concerning issue of microplastic contamination across ecosystems. The paper provides a general overview of the plastic pollution problem for a Portuguese-speaking audience.
Plastic, in its broadest term, is one of the most versatile, widely disseminated materials in all segments of society, including general and specific industrial applications, high-tech materials and simple materials such as those related to packages, household items, fabrics, etc.Despite the indisputable benefits that these materials have brought, more recently, environmental issues related to their disposals and waste have aroused great concern with impacts, which are already quite severe.In addition to the obvious and visible environmental impacts of the disposal of plastic materials, more recently another issue has aggravated the concerns related to the subject and corresponds to "microplastics" (particles with diameter between 5 mm and 1 nm), which are widely distributed in all environmental systems and organisms.Without intending to exhaust the subject, in this Review, we present a compilation related to these materials, such as forms of generation, distribution and especially their impacts on biological systems.As one of the most viable and veritable ways to reduce environmental problems related to plastics, we present some information related to recycling.
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