Microplastics pollution: A comprehensive review on the sources, fates, effects, and potential remediation

Abstract Microplastics (MPs) are omnipresent and enter into the environment due to the indiscriminate usage in various industrial productions like cleaning and cosmetics products, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, and through the weathering of large plastic relics. Moreover, MPs have the potential of biomagnification along with the food chain via ingestion, inhalation, and translocation and may also transfer into the human body. It is reported that MPs can accommodate several contaminants onto their surface due to the high adsorption potentiality. Thus, MPs have received tremendous research interest. However, previous studies put little emphasis on the distributions and fates of MPs in the aquatic ecosystems more specifically in the marine environment. Thereby, a critical review was conducted aiming to comprehend and scrutinize the possible sources of MPs with their proven effects in the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems as well as the probable ramifications in human health. Besides, this review summarizes the existing identifications and removal approaches of MPs with their advantages and drawbacks and more precisely pointed out several crucial knowledge gaps on which researchers should focus to promote the MPs research in the future. However, researchers stated MPs as an emerging threat to our environment as it is widespread, highly persistent, non-degradable, and toxic. Therefore, this work has suggested that to commence the monitoring and clean-up approaches for the existing plastic fragments, removal actions and remedial measures should take simultaneously.