Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Understanding microplastic pollution: Tracing the footprints and eco-friendly solutions

This review covers the sources, health impacts, detection methods, and biological removal strategies for microplastic pollution. Biological approaches using algae, bacteria, and fungi show promise for breaking down microplastics in wastewater treatment plants, which could help reduce the amount of these particles that ultimately reach humans through contaminated water and food.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 46 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems: Degradation mechanisms and removing strategies

This review summarizes methods for removing microplastics from water, including physical filtering, chemical treatments, and biological breakdown by bacteria, fungi, and enzymes. Effective removal of microplastics from water is important for human health because these tiny particles are eaten by fish and other seafood, eventually entering the human food chain.

2024 Environmental Science and Ecotechnology 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of microplastics from wastewater: available techniques and way forward

This review surveys the available techniques for removing microplastics from wastewater, including filtration, coagulation, biological treatment, and advanced methods like membrane bioreactors. Researchers found that while conventional treatment plants can remove a substantial fraction of microplastics, significant amounts still pass through to the environment. The study emphasizes the need for upgrading wastewater treatment systems to better capture these emerging contaminants.

2021 Water Science & Technology 100 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

Removal of Microplastics from Wastewater by Biological Process

This review assesses biological treatment processes for microplastic removal from wastewater, covering microbial degradation, biofilm-mediated capture, and enzymatic breakdown, and discussing how these processes can complement physical and chemical treatment steps.

2025
Article Tier 2

Eco‐Friendly Solutions to Emerging Contaminants: Unveiling the Potential of Bioremediation in Tackling Microplastic Pollution in Water

This review examines bioremediation -- using microorganisms to break down microplastics in water -- as a greener alternative to costly physical and chemical removal methods. While certain bacteria and fungi show real promise in degrading plastics like polyethylene and polystyrene, challenges remain in scaling these approaches. Reducing microplastics in water is important because contaminated water is one of the main ways these particles reach humans.

2024 Advanced Sustainable Systems 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Eco-Solutions to Microplastic Pollution: Advances in Bioremediation Technologies

This review surveys bioremediation technologies, including microbial and plant-based approaches, as potential solutions for removing microplastics from the environment. Researchers highlight promising organisms and enzymatic pathways while noting that practical, scalable applications remain in early development.

2020 Environmental Reports.
Article Tier 2

Biostrategies for the removal of microplastics: A Review

This review covers biological strategies for removing microplastics from the environment, including biodegradation by bacteria and fungi. Biological approaches are highlighted as economically attractive compared to physical or chemical methods, though challenges remain in scaling up and ensuring complete degradation of plastic particles.

2023 International Journal of Engineering Technology and Management Sciences 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Bioremediation of Microplastics in Wastewater Treatment Plants: A Sustainable Approach

This review examines bioremediation as a sustainable strategy for removing microplastics from wastewater treatment plants, synthesizing knowledge on bacterial, fungal, algal, and enzymatic degradation pathways across different treatment stages. The authors evaluate bioaugmentation and biostimulation strategies and highlight their potential for integration into operational wastewater treatment infrastructure.

2025 ACS symposium series
Article Tier 2

Assessing Recent Technologies for Addressing Microplastic Pollution and Pushing the Case of Bioremediation as an Attractive Approach

This review assesses current technologies for addressing microplastic pollution, with a focus on bioremediation as a sustainable alternative. Researchers compared physical, chemical, and biological approaches and found that microbial degradation offers distinct advantages in terms of environmental compatibility and cost-effectiveness. The study advocates for increased investment in bioremediation research as a practical strategy for managing microplastic contamination at scale.

2024 Recent Advances in Food Nutrition & Agriculture 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Technologies to eliminate microplastic from water: Current approaches and future prospects

This review surveys the different technologies available for removing microplastics from water, from basic filtration to advanced methods like magnetic separation and electrochemical treatment. Conventional approaches struggle with very small particles, while newer techniques are more effective but expensive and energy-intensive. Biological methods using bacteria, fungi, and algae offer a more eco-friendly alternative but need further development.

2025 Environment International 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent advances in biodegradation of emerging contaminants - microplastics (MPs): Feasibility, mechanism, and future prospects

This review explores biological approaches to breaking down microplastics, including using bacteria, fungi, and enzymes. While some organisms can partially degrade certain plastic types, the process is slow and incomplete compared to the scale of pollution. The research is promising for future cleanup efforts but shows that biodegradation alone cannot yet solve the microplastic contamination problem.

2023 Chemosphere 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Critical review of microplastics removal from the environment

This review evaluates technologies for removing microplastics from the environment, including physical methods like filtration, chemical treatments, and biological approaches using microorganisms. Each method has trade-offs between effectiveness, cost, and scalability, and no single technology can solve the problem alone. The authors emphasize that reducing human exposure to microplastics requires combining better removal technologies with policies that limit plastic production and waste at the source.

2022 Chemosphere 256 citations
Article Tier 2

Microorganism-mediated biodegradation for effective management and/or removal of micro-plastics from the environment: a comprehensive review

This review summarizes research on using microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and algae to break down microplastics in the environment. While some organisms can partially degrade certain plastic types through fragmentation and chemical breakdown, no single microbe can fully eliminate microplastics. The review highlights that biological degradation is a promising but still limited approach to addressing microplastic pollution, and more research is needed to develop effective microbial cleanup strategies.

2024 Archives of Microbiology 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics Removal Strategies in Aquatic Environments

This review examines and compares multiple strategies for removing microplastics from aquatic environments, including physical, physicochemical, and biological methods. Researchers found that each approach offers different trade-offs in removal efficiency and scalability, emphasizing the need for integrated treatment solutions given the global abundance of microplastics and their negative effects on aquatic ecosystems.

2025 Jurnal Presipitasi Media Komunikasi dan Pengembangan Teknik Lingkungan
Article Tier 2

Engineering a Solution: Recent Technological Advances in the Microbial Bioremediation of Microplastics

This review examines recent advances in microbial bioremediation of microplastics, highlighting the limitations of conventional treatments and presenting biological alternatives using bacteria, fungi, and algae capable of degrading plastic polymers. The authors discuss key enzymatic mechanisms and the potential for scaling microbial approaches as sustainable remediation tools for plastic pollution.

2025 SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository
Article Tier 2

Removal of Microplastic Contaminants from Aquatic Environment

This review examines technologies for removing microplastics from aquatic environments, covering physical, chemical, and biological treatment methods and their relative effectiveness. Identifying and improving removal strategies is urgent because microplastics are now found throughout drinking water sources, oceans, and freshwater systems, posing risks to wildlife and human health.

2023 BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS eBooks 2 citations
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
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Eradicating microplastics in wastewater: microalgae as a sustainable strategy

This review examines the use of microalgae as a sustainable strategy for removing microplastics from wastewater, discussing biosorption mechanisms, removal efficiencies, and the limitations of conventional treatment plants that typically achieve only up to 90% MP removal.

2025 The Science of The Total Environment
Article Tier 2

Fungal Bioremediation: A Sustainable Strategy for Microplastic Removal from Polluted Water

This review covers fungal bioremediation of microplastic pollution in water, examining how various fungal species degrade plastic polymers, the mechanisms involved (enzymatic oxidation, biofilm formation), and the feasibility of scaling these biological approaches for water treatment applications.

2025 Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries
Article Tier 2

Microbial degradation of microplastics: Effectiveness, challenges, and sustainable solutions

This review summarizes current knowledge on microbial degradation of microplastics, examining the effectiveness of bacteria, fungi, and algae in breaking down various plastic polymers. Researchers found that while certain microorganisms show promising degradation capabilities, the process remains slow and faces challenges in real-world conditions. The study identifies key research gaps and potential strategies for developing more effective biological microplastic remediation approaches.

2025 Current Research in Microbial Sciences 1 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Bioremediation of microplastic pollution: A systematic review on mechanism, analytical methods, innovations, and omics approaches

Researchers systematically reviewed how bacteria, fungi, and algae can break down microplastics through enzymes and biofilms, and how cutting-edge tools like genomics and genetically engineered microbes are improving biodegradation efficiency. While microbial bioremediation is a promising sustainable approach to microplastic pollution, challenges around scalability and varying degradation rates in real environments still need to be overcome.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 7 citations
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