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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Plastics, Bioplastics and Water Pollution
ClearAre bioplastics the solution to the plastic pollution problem?
This review examines whether bioplastics can meaningfully reduce plastic pollution, concluding that while bioplastics offer some advantages, they are not a straightforward solution because many require industrial composting conditions and their environmental benefits depend heavily on end-of-life management.
Biodegradability of bioplastics in different aquatic environments: A systematic review
This systematic review examines whether bioplastics actually break down in water as promised. The findings reveal wide variability in how well different bioplastics biodegrade in freshwater and saltwater, and current testing standards lack clear targets, meaning some materials marketed as biodegradable may still persist in the environment and contribute to microplastic pollution.
Bioplastic in Water Streams Challenges
This review examines the challenges posed by bioplastics in aquatic environments, arguing that their biodegradability advantage is largely negated in marine and freshwater systems where decomposition conditions are rarely met. The authors discuss how bioplastics such as PLA are transported by water streams, contribute to microplastic pollution, and can harm aquatic organisms.
Application of biodegradable plastic and their environmental impacts: A revie
This review examines the environmental impacts of conventional petroleum-based plastics and evaluates biodegradable alternatives made from plant-based and other organic materials. Researchers found that while bioplastics show promise for reducing long-term pollution, their degradation rates vary significantly depending on environmental conditions. The study emphasizes that switching to biodegradable plastics alone is not enough without proper waste management infrastructure.
Biodegradation of Wasted Bioplastics
This paper provides a broad overview of bioplastics — materials made from renewable biological sources — discussing their potential as a partial solution to global plastic pollution and the complexity of their biodegradability. While microplastic accumulation in oceans is mentioned as context for the urgency of the problem, the paper's focus is on bioplastic production and biodegradation rather than microplastic health or environmental impacts.
Plastic Pollution. The Role of (Bio)Degradable Plastics and Other Solutions
This review examines the scope of plastic pollution including micro and nanoplastics (MNPs), their environmental and health impacts, and potential mitigation strategies including biodegradable plastics and design-for-end-of-life approaches. The authors evaluate the conditions under which biodegradable plastics can and cannot serve as viable solutions to plastic pollution.
Microplastics Pollution in Aquatic Ecosystems: Challenges and Perspectives
A comprehensive review covered the challenges and future directions for addressing microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems, synthesizing knowledge on sources, fate, ecological impacts, and removal strategies. The paper provides a roadmap for research and policy priorities to reduce aquatic microplastic contamination.
Pollution to Solution: Understanding and Addressing Microplastic Contamination in the Environment
This review synthesizes current knowledge on how microplastics and nanoplastics are distributed across freshwater and marine environments, how they interact with and are taken up by aquatic organisms, and what removal technologies show the most promise. It covers the full lifecycle from macroplastic fragmentation to nano-scale particles, and surveys physical, chemical, and biological treatment methods. The review provides a useful overview for researchers and environmental managers looking to understand the scope of the microplastic problem and identify where interventions are most needed.
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.
Microplastics in Aquatic Environments
This review examined microplastics as ubiquitous pollutants in aquatic environments, tracing their origins in large-scale plastic production and inadequate waste management systems and synthesizing evidence on their distribution, ecological impacts, and implications for global water quality.
Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems: Pathways, Impacts and Integrated Solutions for Environment and Human Health
This review synthesizes current knowledge on microplastic contamination in freshwater and marine ecosystems, covering their sources, environmental behavior, and biological effects. Evidence indicates that microplastics enter waterways through wastewater, runoff, atmospheric deposition, and the breakdown of larger debris, and they accumulate across food webs through ingestion and trophic transfer. The study calls for integrated solutions combining reduced plastic use, advanced filtration, bioremediation, and stronger policy enforcement.
Micro Plastic Contamination: A Comprehensive Review of Risks and Sustainable Solutions
This comprehensive review examines the sources, environmental fate, ecological impacts, and potential sustainable solutions for microplastic contamination, summarizing evidence for MP effects on aquatic organisms and discussing physical, chemical, and biological strategies to reduce pollution.
Microplastics in aquatic systems, a comprehensive review: origination, accumulation, impact, and removal technologies
This comprehensive review traced the sources of microplastics in aquatic environments, from industrial products and packaging to cosmetics and agricultural materials, and examined their toxic effects on living organisms. Researchers found that microplastics are remarkably stable and widespread, posing growing ecotoxicological risks to aquatic ecosystems. The study also evaluated current removal technologies, noting their advantages and limitations, and warns that without better strategies, microplastic pollution will become significantly worse in coming decades.
Bioplastics and the environment: Solution or Green Illusion?
This review critically evaluates whether bioplastics are genuinely environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional plastics, finding that many bioplastics degrade incompletely under real-world conditions, form persistent microplastic fragments, and may pose ecological risks comparable to conventional plastics.
Solution or Pollution? A paradigm shifts in understanding the fate and threats of biodegradable plastics in the marine environment
This review challenges the assumption that biodegradable plastics are inherently eco-friendly by examining their degradation behavior in marine environments. Researchers found that biodegradable plastics often require specific conditions to break down and can themselves become sources of microplastic pollution when those conditions are not met. The study highlights a significant research gap in understanding the fate of biodegradable nano- and pico-plastics in marine ecosystems.
Research advances of biodegradable microplastics in wastewater treatment plant: Current knowledge and future directions
This review examines how biodegradable plastics break down into microplastics during wastewater treatment and their effects on the treatment process. Biodegradable microplastics can alter microbial communities in treatment systems and carry pollutants on their surfaces due to abundant oxygen-containing chemical groups. The findings challenge the notion that biodegradable plastics are a complete solution to plastic pollution, since they still generate microplastics that could affect water quality and human health.
Microplastics influencing aquatic environment and human health: A review of source, determination, distribution, removal, degradation, management strategy and future perspective
This review paper provides a broad summary of microplastic pollution in water environments, covering where they come from, how to detect them, how they spread, and how to remove them. The authors emphasize that microplastics persist for extremely long periods in water and can harm both aquatic life and human health, calling for better management strategies worldwide.
Microplastics in the Aquatic Environment: Overview of the Problem and Current Research Areas
This review summarizes the current state of microplastic research in aquatic environments, covering sources, distribution, ecological impacts, and knowledge gaps. The paper identifies priority research areas needed to better understand and manage microplastic contamination in water bodies.
Microplastics in the environment: A critical overview on its fate, toxicity, implications, management, and bioremediation strategies
This review provides a broad overview of microplastic pollution, covering how these particles enter freshwater systems, accumulate in organisms, and carry toxic chemicals through the food chain. With approximately 360 million tons of plastic produced globally each year and only 7% recycled, microplastics have become a pervasive threat to water quality and, by extension, human health.
Microplastics in aquatic environments: a review of recent advances
This review synthesizes recent advances in understanding microplastic contamination in aquatic environments, covering sources, distribution, and physical, chemical, and biological removal methods, and highlighting that no standardized cost-effective removal solution currently exists. The review emphasizes that microplastics cycle through natural and engineered systems, requiring whole-system approaches to avoid unintended recontamination.
How plastic waste management affects the accumulation of microplastics in waters: a review for transport mechanisms and routes of microplastics in aquatic environments and a timeline for their fate and occurrence (past, present, and future)
This review traces how plastic waste management practices influence the accumulation and transport of microplastics in freshwater and marine environments over time. Researchers found that improper waste handling, surface runoff, and wastewater discharge are the primary pathways through which microplastics enter aquatic systems. The study provides a timeline perspective showing that without improved waste management, microplastic concentrations in water bodies are projected to continue rising significantly.
Microplastics in aquatic environment: Challenges and perspectives
This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic pollution in water environments, covering sources, transport, health effects, detection methods, and control strategies. Microplastics enter waterways from everyday plastic products, industrial discharge, and wastewater treatment plants, where aquatic organisms ingest them and pass them up the food chain. The review highlights the urgent need for better analytical techniques and global policies to reduce microplastic contamination that ultimately reaches human food and drinking water.
Discussion about suitable applications for biodegradable plastics regarding their sources, uses and end of life
Researchers critically evaluated the scientific basis for biodegradable plastics as a solution to plastic pollution, concluding that no plastic biodegrades universally across all ecosystems, that treating the environment as a waste treatment system is unacceptable, and that compostable plastics require dedicated collection infrastructure to deliver on their environmental promise.
Environmental Impact of Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems: A Review of Current Research and Future Directions
This review examines microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems, covering chemical, biological, and ecological processes beyond simple physical contamination and identifying priority areas for future research directions.