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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Plastic and the Environment
ClearThe Devastation of Waste Plastic on the Environment and Remediation Processes: A Critical Review
This review covers the full scope of plastic waste pollution, from sources and environmental damage to recycling and remediation strategies. It ranks common plastic polymers by the toxicity of their chemical building blocks and traces how plastic waste enters the environment. The review highlights that as plastics break down into microplastics, they become harder to clean up and more likely to enter the food chain, making prevention and recycling critical for reducing human exposure.
Plastic Debris in the Marine Environment: History and Future Challenges
This review traces the history of plastic as a revolutionary material and examines how its success has led to severe and growing pollution problems in the marine environment. Researchers discuss the wide-ranging impacts of plastic debris on marine life, maritime industries, tourism, and human health. The study also critically evaluates current mitigation solutions and cautions that any alternatives to plastic must be carefully assessed to ensure they do not create new environmental problems.
Expanding plastics recycling technologies: chemical aspects, technology status and challenges
This review examined the full life cycle of plastics and evaluated options for managing plastic waste, with a focus on chemical recycling technologies. The study suggests that overcoming barriers to industrial chemical recycling could open new opportunities for reducing plastic pollution.
E-plastic Waste: A Review of Waste Stream Management Challenges and Opportunities for Environmental Sustainability
Not directly relevant to microplastics — this review focuses on electronic plastic waste (e-plastics) as a distinct and neglected waste stream, examining management challenges and recycling opportunities without addressing environmental microplastic contamination.
Plastics: the big environmental problem of our time
This article examines plastics as one of the most significant contemporary environmental pollutants, discussing the difficulty of environmental absorption and the scale of plastic accumulation across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
Recycling and Management of Microplastic Waste
This review examines recycling and management strategies for plastic waste, describing the technical and economic challenges of reducing plastic pollution and the remediation approaches that have been attempted to address microplastic accumulation in the environment.
Plastic Pollution
This book chapter provides a broad overview of plastic pollution, covering the scale of global plastic production, why plastics persist in the environment for centuries, and the various physical and biological approaches being explored to break plastics down. It gives particular attention to microbial degradation as a promising strategy for plastic bioremediation in soil and water environments. The chapter serves as a useful introduction to the plastic pollution problem and the emerging science of using microorganisms to tackle it.
Plastic Pollution: Challenges and Innovative Solutions
This review examines the multifaceted challenges of plastic pollution and surveys innovative solutions spanning material design, waste management, and remediation technologies. The paper synthesises current research on microplastic sources, environmental persistence, and emerging approaches to reducing plastic releases into ecosystems.
Integrated Recycling and The Impact of Plastic Waste from Industry and Agriculture on The Environment
This review examined the environmental impacts of plastic waste from industrial and agricultural sources and assessed integrated recycling strategies for reducing those impacts. The paper discussed how plastic waste prevention, collection, and recycling can minimize pollution and climate contributions from the growing global plastic waste stream.
The Current State of Waste Plastic and Waste Rubber Tasks for the Sustainable Society
This review discusses the state of plastic and rubber waste management challenges in modern society, covering the environmental and health harms caused by leaked plastic and rubber particles. The paper examines recycling limitations and calls for systemic changes to prevent plastic and microplastic pollution from continuing to grow.
Plastic Pollution and its Impact on Environment
This overview of plastic pollution from 1950 to 2021 estimates that approximately 6.3 billion tons of plastics have been produced globally, with only 9% recycled, while continued population growth and consumption drive mounting environmental accumulation. The study links plastic pollution trajectories to public health, ecosystem, and regulatory challenges.
Pervasive Pollution Problems Caused by Plastics and its Degradation
This review discusses the pervasive environmental pollution caused by plastics and their degradation products, arguing that plastic contamination now affects air, water, food, and all living organisms and requires urgent global action to reduce production and improve waste management.
Polymers and Microplastics: Implications on Our Environment and Sustainability
This review discusses the environmental implications of polymers and microplastics, covering their properties, production trends, degradation pathways, and ecological impacts. It highlights the tension between the industrial utility of plastics and their growing threat to environmental and human health.
Degradation and Recycling of Polymer Materials
This review synthesizes research on the degradation and recycling of polymer materials, covering microplastic formation, recycling strategies, and plastic degradation mechanisms as responses to the significant environmental damage caused by discarded plastics in ocean and other ecosystems.
Characteristics of Plastic Pollution in the Environment: A Review.
This review covers the key characteristics of plastic pollution — including sources, abundance, transport, and degradation — across different environmental compartments. It synthesizes knowledge about what makes plastic pollution persistent and widespread, providing a foundation for understanding microplastic formation and behavior in the environment.
The Current Status of Plastics
This overview chapter discusses the current global status of plastic production and pollution, noting that marine plastic research has become a focal point for scientists and policymakers. It covers the properties that make plastics so widely used while also explaining why those same properties make them persistent environmental pollutants.
Environmental Impact of Plastic Waste: Strategies for Sustainable Management
This systematic review summarizes the environmental and health impacts of plastic waste and evaluates strategies for sustainable management. It highlights that plastic pollution threatens ecosystems and human health through microplastic contamination, and examines approaches like recycling, biodegradable alternatives, and policy interventions to reduce exposure.
Influence of Plastic Waste Management on the Environment: A review
This review examined how different plastic waste management practices influence environmental outcomes, discussing the limitations of landfilling, incineration, and recycling for fossil-based plastics that persist in the environment for hundreds of years. The paper argued that transitioning to a circular economy is essential to reduce the environmental burden of plastic waste.
Role of Plastics in Modern Life: Benefits, Risks and Environmental Consequences
This review examines the dual role of plastics in modern society — their economic benefits alongside environmental and public health risks — and surveys strategies for more sustainable plastic production and disposal.
Plastic Pollution and Potential Solutions
This review provides a broad overview of plastic pollution, covering the full lifecycle from manufacturing through disposal and environmental degradation. Researchers note that of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic ever produced, roughly 79% has ended up in landfills or the natural environment, where it breaks down into micro- and nanoplastics that persist for centuries. The study discusses potential solutions including improved recycling, biodegradable alternatives, and policy interventions to reduce plastic waste.
Applications of recycled plastics and life cycle assessment
This review covers applications for recycled plastics and evaluates the environmental impact of plastic recycling through life cycle assessment. It highlights the tension between the environmental benefits of recycling and the ongoing problem of plastic waste that escapes recycling into ecosystems as potential microplastics.
Managing Plastic Waste─Sorting, Recycling, Disposal, and Product Redesign
This review covers the full landscape of plastic waste management, from sorting and mechanical recycling to chemical recycling and disposal methods. The paper highlights that landfills remain the most common disposal method despite generating microplastics and toxic leachate, while advanced recycling technologies are still too expensive for widespread use. Better management of plastic waste is directly linked to reducing microplastic pollution and its associated human health risks.
Plastic Waste: Current Environmental Pollution, Health Hazard and Biodegradation Strategies and Its Management
This review paper surveys the scope of global plastic pollution, covering environmental contamination, health hazards, and biodegradation strategies. The study highlights that with plastic production exceeding 390 million tons by 2021, effective waste management and biodegradation approaches are urgently needed to address microplastic accumulation.
Plastics
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the plastic life cycle, covering the origins, ubiquity, and impacts of plastics on human health and ecosystems, and discussing actions individuals and societies can take to reduce plastic pollution.