Papers

61,005 results
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Systematic Review Tier 1

Systematic Review of Degradation Processes for Microplastics: Progress and Prospects

This systematic review summarizes existing research on different methods for breaking down microplastics, including photodegradation, chemical oxidation, and biological approaches. The study evaluates how effective each technique is at destroying microplastics and discusses which methods show the most promise for real-world application. Finding effective ways to degrade microplastics is critical because these particles persist in the environment for hundreds of years and continue to enter our food and water.

2023 Sustainability 42 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics Pollution and its Remediation

This publication reviews the growing problem of microplastic pollution in the environment and explores biological and technological strategies for remediation, including microbial degradation and engineered solutions. It highlights the urgent need for practical cleanup approaches as microplastics continue to accumulate across ecosystems worldwide.

2024 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Current studies on the degradation of microplastics in the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem

This review summarizes current studies on microplastic degradation in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, covering physical, chemical, and biological degradation pathways and the fate of breakdown products. The review highlights the persistence of microplastics and the limited progress toward efficient degradation under natural environmental conditions.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 5 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Sources, distribution, and environmental effects of microplastics: a systematic review

This systematic review of 91 studies examines how microplastics spread through water, soil, and sediments and accumulate in aquatic organisms. The findings show that these persistent pollutants do not break down easily and can travel long distances, eventually entering the food chain.

2023 RSC Advances 80 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

A Review of Sources, Hazards, and Removal Methods of Microplastics in the Environment

This systematic review provides a comprehensive look at where microplastics come from, what risks they pose, and how they can be removed from the environment. The review covers contamination in air, water, and soil, noting that microplastics can carry toxic chemicals and harm both ecosystems and human health.

2025 Water 19 citations
Article Tier 2

The Environmental Fate of Microplastics

This review examines the environmental fate of microplastics as a class of micropollutants, tracing how they enter soils, lakes, oceans, and rivers and how their persistence makes them particularly difficult to address.

2024 Microplastics
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in ecological system: Their prevalence, health effects, and remediation

This review provides an overview of microplastic prevalence across different ecosystems and their potential effects on environmental and human health. The researchers discuss how microplastics enter water, soil, and food chains, and examine the various biological effects documented in organisms. They also review current remediation strategies being developed to address microplastic contamination.

2024 Environmental Nanotechnology Monitoring & Management 8 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Microplastics in the Ecosystem: A Systematic Review of the Methods for Their Detection and Removal

This systematic review summarizes existing research on how microplastics spread through ecosystems and evaluates the methods scientists use to detect and remove them. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of physical and chemical detection techniques, helping advance efforts to clean up microplastic contamination that ultimately affects the water we drink and the food we eat.

2023 International Journal of Ecology 6 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review on occurrence, distribution, environmental impacts and biodegradation of microplastics

This review provides a broad overview of microplastic pollution, covering where these particles come from, how they spread through terrestrial and aquatic environments, and their effects on ecosystems. Researchers found that microplastics are now present in virtually every environment studied worldwide, from deep oceans to mountain soils. The study highlights biodegradation by microorganisms as a promising but still underdeveloped approach for addressing microplastic contamination.

2023 Journal of Environmental Biology 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Detection and degradation of microplastics in the environment: a review

This review covers methods for detecting and breaking down microplastics in the environment. Microplastics persist in ecosystems and pose potential risks to both human health and wildlife. The paper highlights the need for better tools and strategies to address this growing pollution problem.

2025 Environmental Science Advances 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Challenges and Strategies for Degradation of Microplastics in Environment

This review examines the challenges of degrading microplastics in environmental settings, discussing their hydrophobic nature, persistent covalent bonds, and large specific surface area that attracts co-contaminants, and surveys physical, chemical, and biological degradation strategies alongside remaining technical hurdles to practical implementation.

2024
Article Tier 2

Environmental behaviors and degradation methods of microplastics in different environmental media

This review summarizes the distribution of microplastics across soil and water environments and focuses on the various methods being developed to break them down, an area that has received relatively little research attention. Researchers found that understanding how microplastics move through different environments is essential for developing effective treatment strategies. The study highlights degradation approaches including biological, chemical, and physical methods while noting that significant knowledge gaps remain.

2022 Chemosphere 128 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Bioremediation of microplastics in freshwater environments: A systematic review of biofilm culture, degradation mechanisms, and analytical methods

This review summarizes existing research on using natural biofilms — communities of microorganisms — to break down microplastics in freshwater. Certain bacteria can degrade plastic particles, offering a potential eco-friendly cleanup method. While the approach is still slow and not yet widely practical, it points toward biological solutions for reducing microplastic pollution in our water supply.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 114 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental fate, aging, toxicity and potential remediation strategies of microplastics in soil environment: Current progress and future perspectives

This review summarizes what we know about microplastics in soil, including where they come from, how they age and break down, and their toxic effects. As microplastics degrade in the environment, they can release harmful chemicals and help transport other pollutants like heavy metals through the food chain to humans. The paper also explores cleanup strategies, though effective large-scale solutions remain a challenge.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 60 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of biodegradation and formation of biodegradable microplastics in soil and freshwater environments

Researchers reviewed how biodegradable plastics break down in soil and freshwater, finding that incomplete degradation by microorganisms can still produce tiny biodegradable microplastic particles that persist in the environment — meaning "biodegradable" doesn't always mean safe or fast-disappearing.

2024 Applied Biological Chemistry 58 citations
Article Tier 2

Occurrence, impact, toxicity, and degradation methods of microplastics in environment—a review

This review summarizes current knowledge about microplastic pollution, covering where these particles come from, how they affect ecosystems, their toxic effects on organisms, and methods for breaking them down. Researchers found that microplastics are pervasive across aquatic and terrestrial environments and can harm organisms through ingestion, choking, and chemical exposure. The study examines physical, chemical, and biological degradation methods as potential tools for addressing microplastic contamination.

2022 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 131 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Unravelling the ecological ramifications of biodegradable microplastics in soil environment: A systematic review

Researchers reviewed 85 studies on biodegradable microplastics in soil, finding that when biodegradable plastics fail to fully break down they can disrupt soil structure, nutrient cycling, and microbial life in ways that depend heavily on concentration and plastic type. The review highlights that "biodegradable" plastics are not a simple fix for microplastic pollution in agricultural soils.

2025 Emerging contaminants 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Potential environmental impacts of bioplastic degradation in natural marine environments: A comprehensive review

This review examines the environmental impacts of biodegradable plastics degrading in marine environments, finding that their microscale breakdown raises significant concerns about contributing to microplastic pollution rather than eliminating it. The authors conclude that biodegradable plastics require reevaluation as petroleum-based plastic substitutes given the incomplete understanding of their behavior at the microscale in marine ecosystems.

2025 Marine Environmental Research
Article Tier 2

Challenges and opportunities in bioremediation of micro-nano plastics: A review.

This review examines biological approaches to removing micro- and nanoplastics from the environment, focusing on microbial degradation and bioremediation strategies. While bioremediation holds promise, challenges remain in identifying microbes capable of degrading common plastic types and scaling these processes for practical environmental cleanup.

2022 The Science of the total environment
Article Tier 2

The detrimental impact of microplastics on the Marine Environment and potential remediation strategies.

This review analyzes the detrimental impacts of microplastics on marine environments, summarizing documented hazards to marine life and ecosystems from historical and recent research, and evaluates several representative remediation strategies for addressing microplastic contamination. The authors found that microplastics interfere broadly with marine organism physiology and food web dynamics, and that current treatment approaches — including filtration, photocatalysis, and biological degradation — each carry limitations requiring further development for large-scale application.

2024 Science and Technology of Engineering Chemistry and Environmental Protection
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution: A global perspective in surface waters, microbial degradation, and corresponding mechanism

This review provides a global overview of microplastic pollution in surface waters and examines the potential for microbial degradation as a remediation strategy. Researchers summarize evidence that certain bacteria, fungi, and algae can break down various types of microplastics, though degradation rates depend heavily on environmental conditions. The study highlights that while microplastics are now found in virtually every environmental niche, biological approaches to breaking them down are still in early stages of development.

2024 Marine Pollution Bulletin 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and nanoplastics: Source, behavior, remediation, and multi-level environmental impact

This review summarizes existing research on where microplastics and nanoplastics come from, how they move through air, water, and soil, and their toxic effects on living organisms from marine life to humans. Once ingested, these particles accumulate in the body over time through a process called bioaccumulation and can become more concentrated as they move up the food chain. The authors highlight that effectively addressing plastic pollution will require combining cleanup technologies with strong regulatory policies.

2024 Journal of Environmental Management 101 citations
Article Tier 2

Degradation of microplastics in the natural environment: A comprehensive review on process, mechanism, influencing factor and leaching behavior

This review examines how microplastics break down in the environment through physical, chemical, and biological processes, and what happens as they degrade. As microplastics age and fragment, they release chemical additives and dissolved organic matter that can be toxic, meaning degrading plastics may actually become more harmful to ecosystems and human health over time.

2025 Journal of Environmental Management 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic accumulation in soils: Unlocking the mechanism and biodegradation pathway

Researchers reviewed how microplastics accumulate in soil and break down biologically, finding that certain microorganisms can form biofilms on plastic surfaces and use enzymes to slowly degrade the polymers — though conditions like pH, temperature, and moisture must be optimized and new plastic-degrading microbes need to be identified before this approach can be widely applied.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 10 citations